<p>Representative image<br></p>

Key Highlights Transport minister Satyendar Jain said that a draft policy has been finalised and it will be released within a month

He added that meters and transparent pricing have been made mandatory

The draft policy has incorporated digital meters with GPS along with a fare set by the govt

NEW DELHI: Delhi government seems to be finally getting ready to regulate taxi aggregators. Transport minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said that a draft policy has been finalised and it will be released after public consultation within a month.

Jain, who compared the draft taxi aggregator policy to the premium bus policy tabled earlier, added that meters and transparent pricing have been made mandatory. “A meeting with the stakeholders will be held soon along with a public consultation before we send the draft policy to the LG for approval,“ he said.

The draft policy has incorporated digital meters with GPS along with a fare set by the government. “No one will be allowed to charge more than the fare set by the government, though they can charge less if they want to,“ clarified Jain.

The minister hoped that with this move the surge pricing employed by the taxi aggregators may get curbed.“Companies will have to announce all fares transparently,“ he said.

The taxi aggregator policy will be specifically tailored for app-based taxi services, much like Karnataka has done. The city taxi scheme, which had been announced last year, was not accepted by taxi aggregators as it described them as transport providers and not an application-based service provider, said government officials.

The policy also states that only taxis would be allowed to ply and not private vehicles. Also, commercial vehicles with an aggregating firm will have to register under this scheme to be able to operate in the city. This is besides the licence that the aggregating company will have to take in order to ply.

Jain added that the fares would be decided by a fare fixation committee of the government once the policy is in place. Delhi High Court had recently asked the state government to make an app-based cab services policy.

Meanwhile, autorickshaw unions in the city have welcomed the move that these taxis would have to ply by meter and fares set by the government. “The app-based taxi services were not following the law and trying to take away our business. If they go by meter, then we have no issues,“ said Rajender Soni of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. Auto unions had gone on strike last month to protest against Ola and Uber.

Times View

The draft policy seems to suggest that digital meters will be made mandatory even though the taxis will be GPS-enabled to allow them to be monitored for the safety of passengers. This makes no sense. Forcing the taxis to instal an additional device when they already have one that measures the distance they have travelled is an unnecessary additional cost. When you take into account the fact that meters can and have been rigged while the GPS is something the customer too can use on his handset, the move makes even less sense.

