Bike-taxi service Rapido which was started three days ago has been asked to stop all its services across the city immediately, said an official from the Regional Transport Office (RTO).
This comes after the Andheri RTO issued a notice to the company on Tuesday stating they do not have permission to start such services across Maharashtra.
The senior official said that traffic police had appealed to people to not book any bike-taxis through Rapido’s application, as the government has not approved any transportation services for bikes.
“We had also issued a notice on Monday to the bike-taxi service Rapido saying it is "illegal" as the Maharashtra government has not yet given permission for such taxi service,” said the official.
The Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Department also claimed it has not given any permission to the company for the service and that it is illegal.
The Andheri RTO, with registration code MH02, has also directed the company to immediately shut its service, or else action will be taken against it as per provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. “The RTO has given seven days to the company to reply and warned of action if it fails to do so,” informed the official.
Rapido had only last Friday announced the launch of its bike- taxi service here and said it plans to take on board two lakh bike drivers in the next two years to expand its operations. The app-based platform currently caters to auto-rickshaw and bike ride-sharing segments. It offers bike-taxi service to customers across 100 cities including tier-2 and tier-3 cities, while the auto-rickshaw services are available in 14 cities across 10 states.
