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Centre lifts restrictions on Ola, Uber cabs, lets states decide on running buses
Sunday evening’s guidelines of the home ministry also end the restrictions on movement of cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, taxis and cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber.
The Centre on Sunday evening lifted the restrictions on inter-state movement of people in private vehicles and public transport imposed nearly two-month ago. In its guidelines for lockdown 4.0, the home ministry said state governments were free to resume intra-state and inter-state movement of people.
“Inter-State movement of vehicles and buses has also been allowed with mutual consent of the concerned States/ UTs. Intra-State movement of vehicles and buses can be decided by the States and UTs, the guidelines said.
Inter-state movement, apart from that for essential services and goods transport, was suspended on March 25.
Sunday evening’s guidelines of the home ministry also end the restrictions on movement of cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, taxis and cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber.
On May 1, the home ministry had allowed limited use of cabs during the third round of the lockdown in green and orange zones. Besides, it had barred more than two passengers from travelling in these cabs.
The Centre’s new guidelines, however, empowers the states to impose restrictions according to the prevailing situation. This implies that some states might extend the restrictions.
To be clear, all domestic and international passenger flights, regular passenger trains and metro rail will remain suspended till May 31, the order noted. Air transport will be exempted only for domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance and security purposes.
On May 11, the Centre, which has been running special trains to take migrants home, had allowed 15 selected trains to resume operations.
Officials said the new lockdown guidelines did not impact railway services and the two categories of passenger trains - Shramik Special trains and special passenger trains - will continue to run.
