Ola and Shuttl operate buses illegally, govt cracks down

The transport department on Monday started seizing buses plying under Ola, Shuttl and other aggregators even as the controversy over AAP government’s ambitious bus-aggregator scheme rages.

The transport department on Monday started seizing buses plying under Ola, Shuttl and other aggregators even as the controversy over AAP government’s ambitious bus-aggregator scheme rages.

The government also said that the ongoing crackdown on bus aggregators was initiated because in the absence of a policy, their operations are illegal.(Abhinav Saha/HT Photo)

So far the department has cracked down on at least a dozen buses.

The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) is investigating a complaint by BJP MLA Vijender Gupta alleging that the AAP government had prepared the policy to favour a particular company. The allegations have been denied by the government.

The government also said that the ongoing crackdown on bus aggregators was initiated because in the absence of a policy, their operations are illegal. The transport department has written to the traffic police asking to conduct regular drives against buses plying illegally in Delhi.

“We have limited staff and enforcement becomes a difficult task. We have asked the traffic police to carry out regular drives. We have seized about a dozen buses as they do not have the licence to run from point to point. Most of them are tempo travellers and run on diesel, which is another violation,” said a transport department official.

At present, there is no rule under which these companies can take licence and the bus-aggregator policy would have allowed them to apply for licences. These buses have All-India Tourist Permits and they attach themselves to aggregators to earn money. Most of them act as feeder to Metro and ply from Dwarka to Gurgaon.

Sandeep Goel, special commissioner of police (traffic), said, “We keep taking action against commercial vehicles including buses for various types of permit violations.”

Officials at Ola refused to comment on the issue. Authorities at Shuttl were not available for comments.

Last month too, transport department had seized 52 buses that were plying illegally and picking passengers from bus stops. The department noticed buses from Haryana, UP and Rajasthan picking up passengers from bus terminals of Delhi. On checking, they were found to be running without any permit.

Sources said since the transport department had not given an interstate permit to buses in the past few years, most of them were running illegally. The buses were taking commuters to NCR towns and far-off areas. Only the DTC buses and cluster buses and those given permit by neighbouring cities are allowed to operate in Delhi and NCR area.