Delhi government’s new “City Taxi Scheme” allows app-based taxi-aggregators to operate legally

New Delhi: In yet another attempt to allow app-based taxi-aggregators to operate under legal framework, the Delhi government has introduced a new "City Taxi Scheme".

According to the report published in Economic Times, the present scheme amalgamates various existing schemes for radio taxis and economy taxis and is believed to be an improvement over a previous scheme.

The ET report quotes a government official as saying: "The rules this time have been fine tuned and improved upon for all taxi service providers. The scheme should be operational in the next couple of days, once the minutes of the (transport) authority (meeting) are released."

One of the hallmark improvements in this scheme is its doing away with the requirement of setting up of centralized control rooms by the taxi operators that was opposed by many taxi operators.

The scheme will not be applicable to "black and yellow" taxis and those taxis under "All India Tourist Permit" that operate on long distance routes.

The scheme has further made provision for the inclusion of small cars like Tata Nano and Mehendra's Reva in cab operations. The scheme has also stipulated a cap of 2500 taxis per operator and the operators are to implement government decided fare structure.

In December, the state transport department had made changes to radio taxi scheme's rules, with an intention to bring app-based taxi operators under the legal framework, but was rejected by app companies who had refused to register themselves into the scheme.