Bengaluru: Competition in Bengaluru’s ride-hailing market is set to intensify with Vietnam’s Green SM, the electric mobility arm of conglomerate Vingroup, preparing to launch services by Nov-end or early Dec, taking on established players like Ola, Uber, Rapido, Namma Yatri.Senior transport department officials said the state had granted the company aggregator licence under Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016, after it fulfilled the prescribed requirements.However, the proposed entry has drawn objections from a section of the cab driver community, with union representatives approaching officials over concerns about pricing, vehicle compliance and the impact on drivers’ livelihoods.Unlike conventional aggregators that connect passengers with drivers operating their own vehicles, Green SM plans to deploy its own fleet of electric cars and employ drivers to operate them.K Somashekar, a union leader, alleged that the company had secured permission from Kasturinagar RTO to operate 100 vehicles, but had brought around 5,000 vehicles to Electronics City for its Bengaluru operations. He questioned whether the company was complying with vehicle and driver-related requirements under aggregator guidelines.
