Pune: Ola’s future in the city to be decided on April 22, no update on Uber
Whether Ola will be permitted to operate in Pune city will be decided after April 22 hearing.
Ola has appealed to the state transport appellate authority for legal assistance regarding the approval of their license to operate their service in the city. Following the appeal, the tribunal has scheduled a hearing date, and the decision will be taken after two weeks.
The State Transport Appellate Tribunal will hold a hearing on April 22 to decide whether Ola will be permitted to operate in Pune, as announced by the Pune Regional Transport Office. While the RTO provided updates on Ola’s case, there was no information on Uber’s position.
On March 11, a meeting was held chaired by District Collector Suhas Diwase in the presence of other transport officials, after which the RTO issued an official letter rejecting the applications of ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd (parent company of Ola) and Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd.
After both companies faced rejection, they were given a 30-day window to apply to the higher authority. However, Sanjeev Bhor, an RTO official, informed that they have received no update from Uber.
According to the Central Government’s Motor Vehicles Aggregators’ (MVA) Guidelines, the aggregator aggrieved by any order passed by the competent authority may appeal to the state government or such other agency as notified by the state government within 30 days of receipt of the order.
All the transport authorities reviewed the meeting and concluded that the documents of both the companies do not comply with the required norms formulated by the Centre’s MVA Guidelines, 2020.
Additionally, the tribunal has asked the Pune RTO to submit their reviews by April 20 on the basis for rejecting the license.
Bhor said, “The tribunal will conduct the hearing on April 22 regarding the approval or rejection of Ola. We have been asked to submit our reports two days before the hearing, on April 20.”
Bhor, when asked about an update on Uber’s case, said the RTO has not received any information regarding whether Uber has appealed to the higher authorities or not.
As per the RTO’s official data, around 45,000 cabs, including those of both companies, are operating in the city without approval. Various complaints from cab drivers about the increase in fares went unanswered due to the absence of a state policy, leading to uncertainty.
