No OLA Cabs In Bengaluru For Next Six Months As Transport Department Revokes Licence

The Karanataka State Transport Commissioner on Friday (22 March) revoked the operating licence of popular cab aggregator OLA Cabs for a period of six months.

OLA has been found violating the Karnataka On Demand Transport Technology Aggregator Rules for reportedly running bike taxi services while only having a licence for four-wheelers.

As per media reports, this ban would be applicable on four-wheeler taxis, autos and bikes.

On 19 February the Transport Department had written to OLA to immediately stop its bike taxi services. Another bike-taxi service provider Rapido too has been ordered to stop its services.

As per an Economic Times report, OLA was sent a strongly worded letter based on complaints by OLA, TaxiForSure and Uber (OTU) Owners and Drivers Association. OLA at that time was running the bike taxi service on a pilot basis for about a week.

“We have issued a notice to Ola to immediately stop bike-taxi services from their platform and explain why the services were introduced without bringing it to our notice”, Additional Transport Commissioner and State Transport Secretary Narendra Holkar was quoted as saying for the 19 February report.

Despite the earlier directive calling a stop to bike taxis, OLA has now been instructed to stop operating all forms of vehicles as per the latest order.