State govt to impose restrictions on surge pricing of Ola, Uber

MUMBAI: Surge pricing by app-based taxi services such as Uber and Ola in Mumbai will be capped at 1.5 times the rate charged by ‘cool cabs’, if the Maharashtra government

MUMBAI: Surge pricing by app-based taxi services such as Uber and Ola in Mumbai will be capped at 1.5 times the rate charged by ‘cool cabs’, if the Maharashtra government accepts the revised proposals of its transport department.

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This means that if you travel from Worli to the airport during peak hours, you will pay a maximum of Rs525 or thereabouts instead of up to Rs1,150 at the current surge rates.

Under a revised version of the City Taxi Scheme 2015 — which aimed at a level playing field for all operators — pricing during peak hours would be capped at 1.5 times the rates of the airconditioned light blue and silver cool cabs and there would be some checks on operations of the app-based taxis during non-peak hours.

The transport department also suggested removal of the proposed cap of 4000 on the number of taxis that every app-based aggregator can hold. At present, around 40,000 black and yellow taxis and 4000 fleet taxis ply on the city roads, besides about 25,000 app-based taxis. App-based aggregators have hit the business of black and yellow taxis as well as airconditioned fleet taxis (such as Meru and TabCab) and cool cabs. Therefore, there is pressure from the unions of taxi drivers to regulated app-based services, while commuters want a check on surge pricing as in Karnataka and Delhi.

Documents accessed by HT suggest that the transport department feels there is no need to create new category of city taxis for app-based services as it would increase “regulatory complexity”. According to sources, the file with the revised proposals was with the transport minister Diwakar Raote’s office, from where it was expected to be sent to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for a final decision.

Transport Commissioner Shyam Vardhane did not respond to phone calls and text messages while the transport secretary SK Srivastava was out of the city and could not be contacted for his comments.