Ola and Uber are India’s leading ride-hailing companies, but seems they have been operating without a licence for some time. Ola and Uber have been operating in Bengaluru even as the requisite licences for both companies have expired, reported The Economic Times. Ola’s licence expired in June while Uber’s expired earlier this month.
The Karnataka State Transport Department is now awaiting directions from the state government over how to proceed in the matter. While both companies have now applied for renewal of their licenses, the companies needed to apply for renewal 60 days before expiry of their existing licenses, according to the report.
“The regulations require an aggregator to apply for renewal of license 60 days before the expiry of license. But both operators have not complied with this (requirement),” L Hemantha Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Transport Department, told ET.
While Uber had applied for renewal four days before its licence expired, Ola applied for renewal after the transport department sent a notice. Ola filed for renewal in October.
“We have written to the State Government to advise as the regulations are issued by the state government, and there are also court orders related to the operations of cab aggregators. We will act as per the government's directions,” Kumar added.
Karnataka, in particular the city of Bengaluru, is a large and important market for ride-hailing apps like Ola and Uber. The state was one of the first in India to put in place regulations for the operation of ride-sharing apps through the ‘Karnataka On demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules, 2016’.
While the two companies had taken the state government to court over the introduction of the regulations, the Karnataka High Court had issued an order in favour of the state government and its power to regulate the operations of the companies.
