Karnataka to decide whether ride-hailing services are illegal
The state government of Karnataka, India, is considering whether to make pool-sharing services for Uber and its local ride-sharing rival Ola illegal. According to the state's transport department, pool services offered by the companies violate rules that restrict a taxi from picking up and dropping off passengers during the the course of a journey on a single route. In 2015, the regulation forced taxi provider ZipGo to halt its operations in Bangalore, a key market for ride-sharing. Uber and Ola will offer pool services until their legality is decided on 30 January. 

In this Tuesday, March 25, 2014 photo, traditional black-and-yellow licensed cabs and private cabs stand at a parking lot at the airport in Mumbai, India. Taxi-hailing smartphone app Uber is making a big push into Asia with the company starting operations in 18 cities in Asia and the South Pacific including Seoul, Shanghai, Bangkok, Hong Kong and five Indian cities in the last year. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

In this Tuesday, March 25, 2014 photo, traditional black-and-yellow licensed cabs and private cabs stand at a parking lot at the airport in Mumbai, India. Taxi-hailing smartphone app Uber is making a big push into Asia with the company starting operations in 18 cities in Asia and the South Pacific including Seoul, Shanghai, Bangkok, Hong Kong and five Indian cities in the last year. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) Credit: AP

As ride-hailing companies Uber and its local giant Ola expand their operations in India, antique regulations continue to emerge as roadblocks.

The latest testament of this comes from Karnataka, the home of crucial market Bangalore, where the state government is considering deeming pool-sharing services of both the taxi services illegal.

According to the state transport department, pool services such as UberPOOL and Ola Share violate(opens in a new tab) contract carriage permit. The archaic regulation restricts a cab from pickling up and dropping passengers during the course of a ride on a particular route.

“Ride-sharing is not possible because they have contract carriage permit, which is for point-to-point drops and not picking up customers in between,” M.K. Aiyappa, state transport commissioner was quoted a saying.

The regulation in question had previously forced cab provider ZipGo to halt(opens in a new tab) its operations in Bangalore in 2015. Interestingly, a provision in the Karnataka Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989 permit the state-run city buses to offer similar shared vehicle experience, but this provision hasn’t been amended to include the pool services by Ola and Uber.

The state government will hold a meeting on Monday where it will decide the fate of the aforementioned pool-services. Last year, the state government had suspended the motor bike services from Uber and Ola, days after the companies had launched the services.

Uber says UberPOOL is clearly within the law.

In the meanwhile, Uber and Ola are offering their pool-services in the city today. In a statement, Uber told Mashable India that it is certain that UberPOOL service doesn’t violate any law. UberPOOL and Ola Share are very popular in the price sensitive market of India.

"We believe UberPOOL is clearly within the law. We will continue to engage with the transport department and Karnataka government as ridesharing products like uberPOOL are the future of urban mobility, helping decongest cities by getting more people into fewer cars and letting riders move around their city more affordably," a spokesperson said.

Ola, India’s largest ride-hailing service with operations in over 100 cities, hadn’t responded to our request for comment at the time of publication.

At an event in New Delhi last month, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had expressed strong concerns on the existing regulations, noting that he was appalled that the certain governments are slow at revising the policies to take into consideration the technological boom in the recent years.