Ola and Uber, the popular lift-hailing service providers, have on Friday applied to the Maharashtra government for aggregator licences, a Regional Transport Office (RTO) functionary told the Press Trust of India. The authorization came necessary after the Centre and the Maharashtra government commanded similar app-grounded companies to gain a licence. Presently, the government can not efficiently take action in case of violations by these drivers and a licence could change that situation.
The operations are under process right now and the indigenous office will forward them to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA) for a final decision, according to Kalaskar. The development comes nearly a month after the Supreme Court directed Uber to apply for a fresh aggregator licence with the Maharashtra government. Bharat Kalaskar, indigenous transport officer from Tardeo RTO, told PTI that they entered operations from Ola and Uber for aggregator licences 3-4 days ago. The operations are under scrutiny and will be later put up to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA) for a final decision about granting the licence, he said.
Last month, the apex court had directed app-grounded hack aggregators to apply for a licence by March 6 if they wanted to continue their operations in Maharashtra. Though Ola didn’t respond to PTI’s queries regarding the operation, an Uber prophet verified submission at the RTO. “ The vacillation of the state government leads to query in the business of aggregators, which is stylishly avoided. We also don’t want Uber to come to a halt. You must decide snappily. Problems arise as you don’t make rules, ” the CJI told the Maharashtra government counsel. Though Ola didn’t respond to PTI’s queries regarding the operation, an Uber prophet verified submission at the RTO. “Uber has applied well within the deadline set by the apex court,” said the prophet. It must be noted that Uber, Ola and Rapido are presently also locked in a battle with the Delhi government over its move to ban bike hacks in the public capital.