BENGALURU: The transport department’s move to suspend Ola’s cab aggregator licence for six months is likely to impact both passengers and drivers.While the decision has came as a shock to many commuters and cabbies, its timing, just before the Lok Sabha elections, has also raised eyebrows. With Ola receiving the order on Friday, the company may approach the high court on Monday.Though Ola has been operating services, fewer vehicles were plying in the city on Friday. Both drivers and passengers are apprehensive about services being hit due to the ban. “What happens to my Ola Money and Ola Pass now? The government is not doing anything to improve public transport but is imposing restrictions on the few transport options the common man has,” said Swathy S, a regular user. “App-based cab services have made our lives easier. It is unfair to ban cabs for six months. For instance, Ola Share has reduced several private vehicles,” said Aiswarya N, another user from Koramangala.Though services may not be immediately stopped, cab drivers may be forced to stop plying the vehicles if the department starts seizing them. Manjunath S, a cab driver, said: “I don’t know how I’m going to pay next month’s EMI. Our earnings have already reduced and will decrease further after the ban”.However, the transport department was reticent about the action it would initiate if the Ola cabs continue to ply. On the other hand, Ola also didn’t say anything about suspending its services. However, sources say the aggregator may approach the high court to challenge the suspension order.The transport department notice states the aggregator violated the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules, 2016. However, another bike taxi operator, Rapido, is operating in the city since 2016 without permission from the department.“The case related to rules is still pending in the HC. How can the transport department suspend services for six months,” wondered an industry source.Ride-hailing companies operate around 2 million cab rides a day across the country with the top seven cities accounting for 80% of the market, according to data from Redseer.“Bengaluru is a fairly important market in the top three for both Ola and Uber,” said Ujjwal Chaudhary, analyst at Redseer, adding that auto rides are in addition to cab rides.For Ola, bike taxis were a pilot project and the company is likely to withdraw it to get its licence back as Bengaluru is a critical market. The suspension of licence comes at a crucial time when Ola is in talks to raise a new round of funding of over $500 million where it has already attracted interest from players like South Korean auto major Hyundai and Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal.Tanveer Pasha, JD(S) transport union leader, welcomed the move. “Illegal bike taxis are reducing the earnings of cab and auto drivers. Ola has been illegally operating these bike taxis,” he said.

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