Uber applies for radio taxi licence in Delhi, promises new safety measures

US online taxi-hailing service Uber has applied for a radio taxi licence and will restart operations in India’s capital, after it was banned following allegations that one of its drivers raped a female passenger, a company spokesman said. 

Uber will improve passenger safety by introducing additional safety measures including more stringent driver checks, an in-app emergency button and a dedicated incident response team, the company said.

Also, sources revealed to a prominent newspaper that two more cab services - NTL Call Taxi and TaxiForSure, had also applied to the government for starting services in Delhi. The government recently modified the 2006 Radio Taxi scheme which regulates radio cabs in the capital.

Uber was banned by the government in December after one of their drivers allegedly raped a 27-year-old woman in Delhi. The driver of the vehicle, Shiv Kumar Yadav, has been arrested and the case is going on in court since December.

But the ban on Uber had not gone down well with its drivers, who staged a protest in Jantar Mantar last month demanding that the ban be revoked. 

(With Reuters inputs)