Bike taxi operators fear new Delhi policy will double vehicle cost

In a move aimed at controlling pollution and ensuring passenger safety, the Delhi government last week approved the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme 2023. Under this policy, all bike taxis will have to be electric from the day the policy is enforced, and all delivery service providers will have to transition within four years.

Though the main goal of the policy is to curtail air pollution by promoting electric vehicles (EVs), there are some apprehensions. Bike taxi drivers say the policy will penalise people from lower income groups. “We cannot afford electric two-wheelers, which cost more than twice as much as our existing vehicles. If it is about commercial number plates, we are ready to pay commercial registration fees again,” says Vinod Kumar, a bike taxi driver who has become a delivery partner.

On October 17, more than 1,500 bike taxi drivers wrote to Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, asking for the same timeline for a transition to electric vehicles as delivery services partners.

Earlier this year, in February, the Delhi Transport Department had issued a notification banning bike taxi services provided by popular aggregators like Ola, Uber and Rapido.

Since the policy doesn't impose any ban on four-wheelers and delivery service providers, environmentalists and social workers believe it falls short of fulfilling its intended purpose and ensuring fairness. Merely banning the use of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles for one segment would not address the pollution issue, they say. Pollution from private vehicles, commercial vehicles, four-wheelers, and industries remains a significant source of emission load in the city.

“The government should formulate a policy to effectively restrict pollution from these sources. The primary focus should be to develop a robust and efficient public transport and non-motorised transport infrastructure to reduce the dependence on ICE," says Sunil Dahiya, analyst, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

The policy has laid down a 'polluter pays' principle, making the licence fee for a conventional vehicle significantly higher than that for an EV. For instance, the licence fee for an electric taxi will be zero, but it will be Rs 600 for a CNG cab, and Rs 750 for petrol.

In a recent report on the policy, Nasscom, the apex body of the information technology (IT) industry, said that the targets for the adoption of EVs should be in consonance with the availability of vehicles and supporting infrastructure. It suggested that targets for adoption of electric two-wheelers for passenger movement should be set in a phased manner.

With the air quality in the national capital expected to dip to ‘very poor’ in the next three-four days, a sub-committee of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Saturday invoked the 11-point action plan under Stage-II of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Improved safety

The new policy also wants aggregators to ensure proper functioning of the installed global positioning system (GPS), verify that the identity of the driver undertaking a trip matches with the one enlisted — requiring verification for each trip — and ensure regular spot checks of vehicles by personnel authorised by the aggregator.

A panic button in vehicle will be mandatory, as will be the integration of fleets with helpline 112 for emergencies. The scheme provides for a mechanism to ensure timely consumer grievance redress by service providers, enforcement of vehicle fitness and pollution control. It also makes it compulsory for drivers to undergo remedial training whenever their performance is rated as poor.