Ola Back To Business

In a relief to commuters in Karnataka, the state government Sunday revoked the suspension on online cab aggregator Ola Cabs Ltd, just two days after announcing it. Ola's license was suspended for six months after the company flouted rules and started operating "two-wheeler taxi service" without permission.

Olacabs will run their business as usual from today. However there is an urgent need for policies to catch-up with new technologies & also industries too should work closer with Govt to help evolve policies for innovations," Karnataka Minister for Social Welfare Priyank Kharge wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Ola was stopped from running cab operations in the state of Karnataka for allegedly violating the license conditions for running bike taxis and also violating government rules. On March 22, the Regional Transport Office suspended the license given to Ani Technologies and said that the company will not be able to run its aggregator service for any vehicles including cars, autos and bikes for the next six months.

Hours after the ban, Ola responded to the order calling it "unfortunate", adding that it was evaluating all options to find an "amicable solution" and was working closely with the authorities.

Earlier this year, Ola had started the bike services in pockets of Bengaluru as a pilot project. "Despite other companies continuing to operate illegally, we halted our bike taxi experiment weeks ago," Ola said, adding it had sought the state's cooperation to develop a legal framework for a pilot.

The transport department has reported seizing several two-wheelers used for the unlicensed taxi services earlier this year. The department ordered the suspension of Ola cab services after the company did not reportedly provide satisfactory responses to notices issued for license violations.