Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has made the online booking of autorickshaws on the ride-hailing apps of Ola, Uber and Rapido illegal from Wednesday. The decision has been taken following a meeting between the Karnataka Transport and Road Safety Department and the representatives of the mobility players on Tuesday.
State Transport Commissioner T H M Kumar also said the ride hailing platforms such as Rapido, Ola and Uber cannot provide the autorickshaw services till the government takes a decision. In case the companies violate the order, then they should know that autorickshaw is not there in the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rule (KOTTAR), 2016, the transport commissioner said briefing reporters here.
“The department will write to the cyber division to stop the autorickshaw services because we cannot do it directly since we don't have the expertise. We will not take action against the autorickshaws but only the Ola-Uber (taxi aggregators). We will fine the companies Rs 5,000 per vehicle,” he said. The transport commissioner pointed out that there is no scope for the taxi aggregators to offer autorickshaw services on their applications under KOTTAR-2016.