Karnataka government to issue edict on carpooling apps in 10 days

Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday said the government would take a decision on carpooling apps within 10 days. The apps, he said, would be allowed to run as they are till then.

The minister was addressing the media after meeting with executives from app-based carpooling firms. “We have not banned carpooling apps or services. They are still running,” he reiterated.

The minister had on Monday denied reports that his department officials would be collecting a fine from carpoolers for operating without a licence. He, however, said the apps that facilitated carpooling needed to register with the government. “Once the carpooling apps operating in the city such as BlaBlaCar, Quickride, and Rideshare register with state transport authorities, they will come under the ambit of the Karnataka Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, and may be allowed to operate with a licence,” he had said.

Taking to social media platform X, Reddy said it was illegal to use non-commercial private vehicles with white number plates for carpooling purposes. “Commercial Vehicles with yellow number plates can be used for carpooling by following appropriate guidelines,” he wrote.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, however, was critical of the government. He told the media that the government did not understand the difference between carpooling and ride-sharing. “Our policy objective must be to move people and not vehicles. But [the government] is curtailing carpooling by banning aggregators.”

Slamming the government for demanding the carpooling apps to apply for a licence, Surya said the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Rules do not currently define carpooling and have no provisions for it. “The government needs to amend the law to suit the current scenario & regulate this activity,” he said.

Carpooling firm Quick Rides CEO KNM Rao said apps were necessary to scale up the scope of carpooling. “Without technology, carpooling is limited to a few friends. Platforms like ours help put users in touch with thousands of people and help them commute better,” he said.

Media reports had emerged on Saturday that the government would collect fines of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 from carpoolers, drawing angry reactions from Bengaluru’s netizens. Plagued by incessant traffic snarls, they had raised the question of why the government was apparently penalising a move that would reduce the number of cars on the roads.

The government’s move to licence carpooling apps are said to be stemming from private transport unions’ city-wide bandh last month, where the protestors submitted a list of demands to the transport minister. Among them was the demand that the government crack down heavily on “illegal” transport operators which were eating into nearly 22 lakh auto and cab drivers’ incomes in the city.

Bengaluru, which became the second slowest city to drive in 2022 after London, according to Dutch navigation and digital mapping company TomTom’s Traffic Index sees hours-long traffic snarls on a regular basis. The city’s tech corridor - the Outer Ring Road - has about five technology parks, 500 technology companies, and about five lakh cars trying to enter the parking areas, which often causes gridlocks. Carpooling is a much-preferred option for commuting for many of the approximately two million people employed in the technology, startup and BPO sectors in India’s Silicon Valley.