Travellers using carpooling apps slam RTO action against these services | Pune News


Frequent travellers in and out of Pune have voiced their opposition to the Regional Transport Office’s (RTO) recent decision to take action against carpooling and car aggregation apps like BlaBlaCar, sRide, and similar platforms. These apps, popular for facilitating ride-sharing among commuters, have come under scrutiny for allegedly operating outside the purview of transport regulations.

Commuters argue that carpooling services are an effective way to reduce pollution, curb traffic congestion, and save fuel. Several users shared their experiences, expressing disappointment with the crackdown on users associated with these apps.

Mahesh Kankale, an office attendant from Pune who travels weekly between Pune and Shambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) for work, who often uses carpooling apps like BlaBlaCar, said that carpooling benefits the environment by decreasing traffic congestion. He emphasised the importance of such solutions for working professionals and families.

While explaining the advantages of carpooling apps, Kankale said that he offers his car’s empty seats through these platforms, shares travel costs, and gains companionship while reducing the number of vehicles on the road. He contrasted this with the inefficiency and high costs of public transport, which he finds time-consuming and inconvenient.

“Despite the guidelines introduced in 2020 under the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines by the Centre, the state government issued a contradictory notification in January 2023, leading to the RTO targeting carpooling users,” Mahesh said, referring to the guidelines from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and NITI Aayog, which legitimize and regulate carpooling aggregators.

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Many users emphasised that carpooling helps reduce the carbon footprint of long-distance travel and argued that banning carpooling apps would increase the number of private vehicles on the roads, worsening traffic congestion and making commuting more expensive for individuals.
Rutuja Shinde, a sustainability auditor in Pune and a BlaBlaCar user for the last four years, shared that she travels once a week to Pune from Shambhaji Nagar. She said that she prefers BlaBlaCar because it helps her reach her office on time and saves fuel, which was the government’s main objective in introducing ride sharing platforms.

“Government buses have already been reduced, and even though I am getting the women’s benefit of 50 percent off on tickets, I still can’t make it to my office on time. Then how does public transport help me?” she said.

While discussing women’s safety on app-based platforms, Shinde said that she had never faced any issues in the past several years. However, she confessed to coming face to face with some problems or clashes in public transport and with transport vehicles like cabs.

On the other hand, the Pune RTO defended its decision, citing that these aggregators were not registered as transport operators under existing laws in Maharashtra, leading to concerns about safety, accountability, and fair competition with licensed transport providers.Vinayak Sakhare, ARTO, said ride sharing aggregators were not complying with Maharashtra’s aggregator policy and therefore operated illegally.

“The state government has declared non transport vehicles as unauthorised if their owners use their private vehicles commercially to transport passengers,” he said.

“We have received complaints that people use their personal vehicles to generate business through these apps. We are locating such individuals using these apps and forwarding their cases to the cyber cell. These apps are not just banned in Pune but across the state,” added Sakhare. Currently, the Pune RTO has formed six squads deployed at places such as Navale Bridge Chowk, Chandani Chowk, Swargate, and Pune Railway Station to inspect and even pose as fake passengers to catch violators.

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