Ola goes all electric, restarts bike taxi services with S1 scooters in Bengaluru
The price of bike taxis is set as ₹25 for 5 kilometers and ₹50 for 10 kilometers.
Cab aggregator firm Ola cabs has announced their operations of electric bike taxis in Bengaluru, starting from Saturday. Ola has earlier operated bike taxis in Bengaluru, but this is the first time for the Indian cab aggregator to operate electric bike taxis. Ola’s S1 electric scooters will be on the road as bike taxis in Karnataka’s capital.
Also Read - Bangalore bandh called off after Karnataka government's intervention
The co – founder and CEO of Ola, Bhavish Aggarwal took to social media platform X and wrote, “Restarting Ola Bike in Blr today. This time, all electric and our own S1 scooters.”
The price of bike taxis is set as ₹25 for 5 kilometers and ₹50 for 10 kilometers. “ ₹25 for 5km, ₹50 for 10km. Lowest cost, very comfortable and great for the environment! Will scale across India over next few months,” added Bhavish Aggarwal.
In recent days, the cab and auto associations in Bengaluru have been demanding the Karnataka government to impose a ban on bike taxis in Bengaluru. They claim that the bike taxis have become unsafe for women and also plying on the road with white board registration plates is illegal. A few instances were also reported where the auto drivers were seen attacking the Rapido bike taxi drivers for their operations.
However, the government said that they will have to go through the legal procedure to impose a ban on bike taxis. After announcing Bengaluru bandh by the Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association last week, Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy announced that they will try to solve all the issues of auto and taxi drivers in the state.
Karnataka already has an electric bike taxi policy in place which was rolled out in July 2021. The main aim of the policy is to enhance last mile connectivity for the people of Bengaluru.