The Maharashtra cabinet has approved a proposal to allow bike taxis to operate in the state.
As per NDTV, Maharashtra transport minister Pratap Sarnaik said that only electric bike taxis will be allowed to ply on the roads under the new policy which aims to promote EVs. He added the bike taxi policy will generate 20,000 to 25,000 jobs.
The minister said that the proposal will benefit about 6,000 riders in Mumbai and nearly 10,000 riders in the entirety of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. He also announced a financial assistance of INR 10,000 for the children of auto and taxi drivers to purchase electric bike taxis.
This comes a couple of months after the Maharashtra transport department reportedly gave its permission to ride-hailing platforms to launch bike taxi services in Mumbai. At the time, the department had directed the cab aggregators to take “special precautions” for women’s safety.
The announcement is expected to offer a major respite for bike taxi platforms in the state and offer end users affordable avenues for last-mile travel. However, allowing only electric bike taxis could create hiccups for these aggregators in the short term.
This comes two years after the state government in January 2023 banned bike taxis and directed ride-hailing platforms to apply for a licence to operate in the state. Thereafter, bike taxi platform Rapido moved the Bombay High Court (HC) and the Supreme Court (SC), challenging the ban.
The approval also comes at a time when ride-hailing platforms have pulled all stops to scale up bike taxi services in the country. In October last year, Uber signed a deal to integrate logistics startup Shadowfax’s two-wheeler fleet with its UberMoto bike taxi offering.
In December last year, Uber also launched a women-only bike ride service in Bengaluru. This followed Rapido also announcing plans to launch a similar all-women “Pink” bike service in Karnataka by the end of 2025.
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