More than 1,500 bike taxi drivers have written to Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, asking for the same timeline for transition to electric vehicles (EVs) as their delivery services counterparts, news agency PTI reported.
The letter came after an official Delhi Government statement noted that the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme 2023 had been submitted to the LG’s office.
To recap, the scheme has set the target for delivery service providers to introduce EVs in new fleets of two-wheelers and three-wheelers at 10% within the first six months of implementing the scheme, 50% in two years and 100% in four years. Meanwhile, the entire fleet of all delivery service providers, old and new, has to transition to EVs by April 1, 2030.
“…we request that the policy remains the same for all bikes. If a bike is allowed on the road to undertake commercial work like delivering goods, food and groceries, it should also be allowed as a bike taxi. If the argument is to convert to EVs, we request that we be given the same parity and timeline to convert to EVs as has been afforded to the delivery sector,” the bike taxi drivers said in the letter.
According to the letter, the scheme essentially states that only electric bike taxis would be allowed to run in Delhi, and bike taxis of other fuel types would become illegal. “By notifying the scheme, the government would stop our only source of income that supports us and our families.” The letter has also been sent to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, BJP MP Gautam Gambhir and Delhi’s Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.
The letter came a day after the Kejriwal-led government approved a scheme for regulating and licencing aggregators offering passenger transport services and delivery service providers in Delhi. The scheme also includes bike taxis and mandates the aggregators to onboard electric two-wheelers for passenger services.
While appreciating the Delhi government’s intent to transition to electric vehicles and reduce pollution levels across the city, the drivers underlined that harsh measures like allowing only electric bike taxis to operate will take away their livelihood.
“This would be very unfortunate as there may be a situation of mass unemployment in a scenario where inflation is already so high and surviving in a metro city has become difficult. For most of us, driving bike taxis is our only source of income to maintain a decent livelihood in these trying times,” the letter added.
Noting that the EV ecosystem is yet to mature for passenger services, especially for bikes, they said there are not many options available in the market that can support bike taxi operations due to limitations in battery backup and public charging infrastructure.
Delhi transport department banned bike taxi aggregator services offered by companies like Uber and Rapido in February this year. It also placed a potential fine of INR 1 Lakh on the aggregators flouting the norms. Since then, bike taxi aggregators and the Delhi Government have been at loggerheads in the Supreme Court.
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