Delhi : The Indian government is stepping into the ride-hailing arena with Bharat Taxi — the country’s first driver-owned cooperative cab service aimed at disrupting the dominance of private aggregators like Ola and Uber.
What is Bharat Taxi?
Bharat Taxi is built on a cooperative framework: drivers become members of the cooperative rather than working under a traditional aggregator model.
Key features include:
- Zero commission model for drivers. Instead of paying high fees or commissions, drivers pay a nominal membership fee.
- Transparent and fair pricing for passengers — the cooperative intends to avoid surge pricing and arbitrary cancellations.
- Driver-ownership and profit sharing — the cooperative model ensures that profits are redistributed among drivers, plus potential social security and cooperative governance benefits.
Pilot Launch & Roll-Out Plan
The pilot phase of Bharat Taxi is slated to begin in November 2025 in the Delhi area with approximately 650 vehicles and owner‐drivers.
If the pilot succeeds, a full-scale launch is expected by December 2025, with expansion to multiple metro cities nationwide.
Longer-term, the target is to onboard up to 100,000 drivers by 2030, and cover both metro and smaller city/rural operations.
Why This Matters
- For drivers: They get greater control over their earnings, fewer intermediaries, and a stake in ownership. Many app-based drivers have expressed frustration with high commissions and opaque practices.
- For passengers: The promise is more stable fares, fairer service, reduced cancellations and less unpredictability compared to some aggregator experiences.
- For the mobility ecosystem: This marks one of the first large-scale attempts in India to introduce a government-backed cooperative alternative in the ride-hailing space — possibly reshaping competition and driver rights.
Governance & Backing
The cooperative behind Bharat Taxi is Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited, incorporated under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, with an authorised share capital of around ₹300 crore.
A board has been constituted with cooperative sector veterans. For example, Jayen Mehta (MD of Amul) is chair, and Rohit Gupta (Deputy MD of the NCDC) is vice-chair.
The Road Ahead: Opportunities & Challenges
- Opportunity: If successful, Bharat Taxi could give a large section of drivers an equitable alternative to private ride-hailing platforms and may bring down costs for commuters.
- Challenge: Scaling rapidly, building the technology and user-experience to rival private platforms, ensuring vehicle/driver quality, managing logistics and operations across diverse geographies.
- Competition: Private players like Ola and Uber already have large user bases and sophisticated tech stacks. Bharat Taxi will have to match reliability and convenience to succeed.
- Adoption in smaller towns: The cooperative model has potential in Tier-II and Tier-III cities as well, but infrastructure and coordination will matter.