The government wants taxi aggregators like Uber and Ola to train one lakh commercial drivers annually with special focus on training women drivers to meet the huge shortage of trained drivers.
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The state government is likely to set guidelines for app-based taxi services in the city before the end of the ongoing monsoon session as confirmed by State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote in the Legislative Assembly, last week. The protest had taken a violent turn after a handful drivers chose to throw stones at private vehicles assuming they were associated with Ola/Uber, resulting in the arrest of six protesters.
The lawyers for Uber sought time to seek instruction on whether the company was still charging beyond the prescribed rates.
The court directed Ola to file its submission along with an affidavit before the next date of hearing on August 9.
Mumbai has around 42,000 black and yellow taxis and over 1.04 lakh auto rickshaws.
The notified fare of Radio Taxi cabs (distinguished by an LCD board on roof top displaying “Radio Taxi”) is Rs 23 per km.
While JBTAS is a lesser known group amongst the driver unions with its followers restricted to Navi Mumbai and region of Western Maharashtra, other unions having clout over south Mumbai such as Mumbai Taximen’s Union led by AL Quadrose and Anna Desai’s Bhartiya Taxi Chalak Sangh, which run the taxi stands outside stations like Mumbai Central, had extended moral support to strike.
With the unions announcing strike, BEST, in an effort to offset the effect, had issued instructions to its depot managers asking them to operate buses when required.
The court was hearing a number of petitions filed by an association of radio taxi operators and Ola.
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“Operations of Uber have grown massively in the country”.
