The long-standing issue of transport authorities not granting contract carriage permits to motorcycles is a case of misconstrued interpretation of the definition of ‘contract carriage’ by some transport authorities as opposed to a gap in the legislation. To resolve this issue, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) recently issued an advisory clarifying to all transport authorities of the relevant states and union territories that ‘motorcycles’ would fall within the ambit of the definition of ‘contract carriage’ under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (MV Act). Considering that aggregators and taxi operators have faced difficulties in their two-wheelers being granted a contract carriage permit under the MV Act, this advisory has also drawn significant attention from aggregators who are keen to operate two-wheelers as bike taxis in various states.
Please click here to read the full article by Venkatesh Raman Prasad, published in Financial Express.
Venkatesh practices Corporate and Civil laws with a focus on Infrastructure, Energy and Foreign investment.