Bengaluru gets a bike-taxi but Mumbai won't, here's why

App-based taxi service Uber rolled out its motorcycle taxi and ride-sharing service uberMOTO in Bengaluru on a pilot basis on Thursday. At Rs 15 per kilometre as minimum fare, commuters in Bengaluru will now be able to hail motorcycle rides.

The company has also made the made the ride-sharing option available on the same lines of its carpooling service. Uber's uberMOTO was first rolled out in Thailand some time ago.

This is not the only motorcycle taxi service that Bengaluru has. The city boasts of at least two other app-based motorcycle taxi services -- HeyBob and HeyTaxi!

HeyTaxi!, a start-up by Manoj Maheshwari and Vikram Lakhotia, was rolled out in Mumbai in June last year. However, only a week after the service was made operational, during which they managed to ferry over 200 commuters, the founders were asked to shut it down by the Maharashtra government. 

This is because the Motor Vehicle Rules in Mumbai don't allow such a service, a Mumbai Mirror report had said. The report also quoted State Transport Commissioner Sonia Sethi saying that the founders had also not availed of the necessary government approvals before rolling out its services. 

Given the amount of time an average individual spends travelling in the city of Mumbai and the sheer congestion caused by the number of cars on the roads, a motorcycle taxi service might be the very thing that the city needs as efficient public transport. However, till the existing Motor Vehicle Rules are in place, such a service is going to elude Mumbaikars.