Ola, Uber suspends surge pricing after Kejriwal warning

Online cab service providers Uber and Ola on Monday suspended their surge pricing after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal threatened "strict action" against over-charging cabs.

"Given the threat to the livelihood of our partners, at the expense of reliability, we are temporarily suspending surge with immediate effect," Uber tweeted.

Uber did not specify if the surge pricing would resume after the second phase of the odd-even traffic scheme ends on April 30.

It also pledged to work with the Delhi government to provide reliable mobility solutions to people in the city, "especially at a time when the citizens need us the most".

Ola cab services also announced rollback of "peak pricing" in Delhi NCR.

"To make the govenment's odd-even initiative a success, Ola has temporarily pulled out Peak Pricing in Delhi NCR," its business head (north) Deep Singh said in a statement.

Kejriwal warned of strict action against online cab aggregators, specially Ola and Uber, over arbitrary surge pricing, a technique used by the cab aggregators to hike the fares owing to higher demand.

The Delhi government on Monday directed the impounding of taxis charging exorbitant fare from the public.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai had said that apart from impounding taxis, they would also seize the licences of the taxi drivers and cancel their permit.

He said the order was applicable to all kinds of cab services including online aggregators as well as private taxis, radio taxis and black-and-yellow taxis.

The demand for taxis has shot up on account of the odd-even traffic scheme that started on April 15 and will run till April 30.

Under the scheme, aimed at battling pollution, diesel and petrol driven private vehicles with odd registration numbers can ply only on odd dates and those with even registration numbers on even dates.

Passengers complained that taxis were over-charging taking advantage of the scheme.