Pune: District collector Jitendra Dudi, who heads the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), on Thursday ordered Rapido to stop its bike-taxi services from Friday. He also warned of legal action, including an FIR, for non-compliance.Dudi issued the directive while presiding over an RTA meeting attended by representatives of aggregator firms, autorickshaw unions, the Regional Transport Office (RTO), and Pune traffic police.On Tuesday, autorickshaw drivers affiliated with the Baghtoy Rickshawala Union met RTO officials, demanding a ban on Rapido’s bike-taxi service and threatening a major agitation if it continued. Following the meeting, the Pune RTO issued Rapido a notice on Wednesday directing it to halt the service.“In the meeting, the collector asked Rapido the reason behind bike taxi operations without approval from the RTO. To this, the company representative said that they were doing a pilot run. They were then told that they couldn’t do business if they were running trials and were asked to shut down the option. With the collector directing the company, we hope that they would concur,” Keshav Kshirsagar, the president of the Baghtoy Rickshawaala union, told TOI.However, the bike-taxi option has been visible on the Rapido application till late Thursday.On the other hand, commuters backed the bike-taxi service, citing lower fares. “How could autorickshaw drivers talk about rules when they anyway flout them? They insist on meter fares even while operating through Rapido or Uber. What is a guarantee that even after getting decent income, they will stop fleecing and will refuse rides?” said Narendra Ranjan, a working professional. He said he recently paid Rs 160 for a bike-taxi ride from NIBM Road to the airport. For the same route, an autorickshaw charged Rs 350, Ranjan said. “Bike taxis should be allowed with adequate safety measures. The govt should reconsider the rule restricting them to electric bikes,” he said.RTO’s action has also left bike-taxi riders questioning why the service was allowed to operate without approval. “I joined the platform recently and completed over 20 rides in three days. Why did the RTO allow us to operate if the service was illegal? With unemployment high, we were trying to earn an honest living,” a Rapido rider said.The collector also said every aggregator needed to furnish monthly data to the RTA showing that they were charging RTA-approved fares.“The aggregators have been told that in case of high demand, they could charge a maximum of 50% more than the RTA-approved rate as fare. And if the demand was low, they could reduce it to a maximum of 25%,” Shafiq Patel, the president of Azad Rickshaw Chalak Sanghatna, told TOI.Kshirsagar said, “Instructions have also been given to all aggregators to ensure that drivers get 80% of the fare, and all of them should immediately start charging fares as per the RTA-approved rates meant for cabs and autorickshaws.”“For cabs, the RTA-approved fare stands at a minimum of Rs17.56 per km and a maximum of Rs 26 per km. For autorickshaws, the RTA-approved fare is Rs 30 for the first 1.5km and Rs 20 for each subsequent km. The aggregators have been asked to immediately modify their fare system accordingly,” Kshirsagar said.Union members said once the aggregators started doing the same, the issue of fleecing and overcharging would be controlled. “With drivers getting decent income, there remained no reason for them to fleece passengers. However, if the same continued, the unions would act against them in coordination with the RTO. But first, all aggregators must ensure that their fare system is in accordance with the directions,” Kshirsagar pointed out.
