Delhi's bike taxi drivers, numbering close to 50,000, have voiced their concerns over job losses due to the approval of the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme, 2023. The scheme mandates aggregators providing passenger services to transition exclusively to electric two-wheelers.
The approval, granted by Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena, is awaiting notification, posing an imminent challenge for bike taxi operators.
The Apna Bike Taxi Association has penned an open letter to Lt Governor V K Saxena and the Delhi government, highlighting their appeals to address grievances that have seemingly gone unheard.
"We feel that the government should understand that if someone is riding a petrol motorcycle, how can they suddenly get an electric bike? Neither are there electric bike taxis available in the market nor do we have the money to buy them," the letter read as reported by the news agency PTI.
The association highlighted the practical difficulties faced by drivers in immediately transitioning from petrol motorcycles to electric bikes. The letter pointed out the unavailability of electric bike taxis in the market and the financial constraints hindering drivers from purchasing them.
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This appeal follows a previous letter written by over 1,500 bike taxi drivers to the LG, urging for timeline the same timeline for the shift to electric vehicles, as given to their counterparts in delivery services.
Earlier the bike taxi drivers had said, "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, groceries etc, then it should also be allowed as a bike taxi as well. 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".