Maha govt bans car-pooling in non-transport vehicles over security concerns

The Maharashtra government has banned the use of non-transport vehicles for aggregation and ride-pooling (car-pooling), citing the safety and security of passengers.

As per a government resolution (GR) issued on January 19, non-transport vehicles including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers are banned (for the ride pooling and aggregation) "in order to ensure road safety of the general public and passengers at large".

Currently, a few aggregators provide app-based bike, auto and car taxi services in major cities of Maharashtra. Some of them provide mobile application-based aggregator service using vehicles, especially two-wheelers, registered under the non-transport category.

Non-transport vehicles are ones with white number plates and are not allowed to be used for commercial purposes.

On January 13, the Bombay High Court pulled up bike-taxi aggregator Rapido for operating without procuring a licence from the Maharashtra government and directed it to suspend the servic