Tamil Nadu government seeks 6 months to decide on bike-taxi services

MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu government has sought six months from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to take a policy decision on permitting bike-taxi services, citing the expert committee constituted to examine the issue.

Transport Commissioner Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan, in an affidavit filed before a Division Bench comprising Justice CV Karthikeyan and Justice Sakthivel, stated that the State government had constituted a seven-member committee headed by Joint Transport Commissioner Pon Senthilnathan, with a data analyst from IIT Madras/Anna University as one of its members.

The committee has been tasked with studying vehicle categories, fare structures, practices in other States, dynamic pricing, pooling services, aggregator-driver agreements and monitoring mechanisms, and recommending a fair and transparent fare regime for incorporation into the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Aggregator Rules, 2025.

The affidavit stated that after receiving the expert committee’s report, the State government would take a policy decision and finalise the appropriate regulatory framework in accordance with the applicable statutory provisions and the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025.

It added that a comprehensive statement containing the details and the government’s decision would thereafter be placed before the court.

The State government filed the response pursuant to the court’s direction at the previous hearing of a petition filed by Naveen Kumar of Madurai, who sought a legal framework for bike-taxi services in the State.

The petitioner submitted that digital platform-based bike-taxi services such as Rapido, Ola and Uber were increasing in Tamil Nadu.

However, the State did not have any policy or rules to regulate these services, he stated.

He further contended that bike-taxi services could not operate independently like autorickshaws and rental cars.