Uber resumes bike taxi services in Karnataka as ‘Bike Direct’ 

Uber has restarted bike taxi operations in Karnataka, following in the footsteps of Rapido, after the Karnataka High Court’s recent clarification on the service.

Rapido had recently introduced a feature called “Bike Direct” to continue its services, describing it as a “non-profit initiative aimed at supporting our captains whose livelihoods were severely impacted by operational restrictions.” Now, Uber has rolled out a similar feature on its app. A check by The Hindu confirmed that the option is now available for riders in Bengaluru.

However, Ola has completely removed the bike taxi feature from its app and has not resumed operations in the State.

While Uber has resumed services, the company has not officially commented on the move. The Hindu reached out to Uber’s spokesperson, but did not receive a response at the time of publishing of this report.

The High Court of Karnataka on August 22 orally clarified to State Advocate-General Shashi Kiran Shetty that the court, on August 20, had only asked the A-G to instruct the authorities not to take any precipitative action against individual bike taxi owners or drivers for operating their vehicles.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi gave this clarification when the A-G complained that aggregators, like Uber, Ola and Rapido, have started offering bike taxis on their platforms even though the court had not given any such liberty to them.