Karnataka suspends Ola services for 6 months in Bengaluru

Karnataka Government has suspended Ola cab services for a period of six months in the Bengaluru. The suspension order was issued for violating the Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016.

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Transport Department on Friday suspended the licence of online cab aggregator Ola for six months in Bengaluru for running its bike taxis while possessing a licence for only four-wheelers, an official statement said.

The order from the Transport Department, dated March 18, issued to Ola operator ANI Technologies on Friday, stated that its licence in Bengaluru was cancelled for six months for violation of conditions under which permission was granted. The suspension order was issued for violating the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016.

Ola company was only granted permission for commercial use of cars but according to the department of transportation ola company introduced bikes taxi services. Commercial usage of bikes is breach of aggregators licence.

The Transport Department had impounded several of Ola's bike taxis over the last few months, the order said. With this order, Ola's cabs and autos will have to keep off the roads for six months. In Bengaluru alone there are around 35000 ola cab drivers. By today's licence suspension Bengaluru based ola drivers now jobless. Most of the drivers are still confused and feared.

Transport Rules

Terming the order "unfortunate", Ola issued a company statement saying, "Ola is a law-abiding company that has always worked with the Government to develop livelihoods, improve mobility, and enable a new technology industry. We are evaluating all options to find an amicable solution wherein hundreds of thousands of driver-partners in the state of Karnataka can continue to work and serve the mobility needs of our citizens. We have been closely working with the authorities on this topic, responding to queries and making proactive representations to the ministry."

Adding to it Ola said that, "Despite other companies continuing to operate illegally, Ola halted our bike taxi experiment weeks ago, instead seeking the state’s cooperation to develop a legal framework for a pilot that will continue to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the mobility economy. This notification is unfortunate, and we look forward to an opportunity to address these concerns directly with state officials to find a solution for our driver-partners and millions of Ola users in Karnataka."

(Inputs from IANS)