NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has introduced a new ‘City Taxi Scheme’, opening up another window for mobile app-based taxi aggregators to come under the legal framework and register themselves for continuing operations in the national capital. Amalgamating the existing schemes for radio taxis and what it calls ‘economy taxis’, the Aam Aadmi Party government ’s new programme promises to be an improvement over a previous proposal.“The rules this time have been finetuned and improved upon for all taxi service providers. The scheme should be operational in the next couple of days, once the minutes of the (transport) authority (meeting) are released,” a senior government official told ET.The new proposal has done away with the need for taxi operators to set up centralised control rooms, one of the sticking points under the previous plan.“There were many problems with implementation of the radio taxi scheme. Many operators could not create their own control rooms,” the government official said. Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Monday announced the scheme, saying that all taxis would come under a single scheme, save for the ‘black and yellow’ taxis and those operating long distances under ‘All India Tourist Permit’ (AITP). For him, the main selling point of the scheme is the provision to include small cars such as Reva and Nano for last-mile connectivity outside metro stations. “For riding in smaller taxis with engines between 600cc and 749cc, a fare of Rs 10 per km will be applicable,” he said.Not many operators use the Tata Nano or Mahindra’s Reva electric car for cab operations, so it remains unclear how useful their inclusion would be on the list of cars that can be used for taxi service. While the government said the new rules are an improvement over the previous ones, they are unlikely to be followed by appbased aggregator companies.For, the rules stipulate a cap of 2,500 taxis per operator and mandate panic buttons and hooters inside the vehicles. Operators also need to follow a government-decided fare structure. Ola claims to have more than 25,000 cabs registered with it in the National Capital Region while Uber has an estimated 15,000 vehicles on its platform. They also offer heavily discounted fares to expand market share, and may find government-set prices detrimental to their plans.Ola and Uber didn’t respond to queries from ET. When asked about the likely opposition, the government official said: “We have created these rules for all operators, not specifically for Uber or Ola. So a new app-based operator willing to follow them (rules) is welcome.”Another transport department official said: “We have also limited the number of taxis one can aggregate or own for a city taxi licence to 2,500 to avoid monopoly. Companies operating over 2,500 cabs can apply by creating newer subsidiaries. However, AITP vehicles will not be allowed under this scheme as these are for tourist purposes only and not city transportation.”In December, when Delhi was administered by the Centre, the state’s transport department had modified the radio taxi scheme’s rules to bring app-based aggregators under a legal framework. However, they were quickly rejected by the app companies who did not register themselves.