Chandigarh has found itself in a rather unusual position in the country’s app-based taxi market. In a regulatory crackdown, the Union Territory has suspended the licences of all four major private cab aggregators operating in the city—Uber, Ola, Rapido and inDrive—leaving commuters with sharply reduced choices for booking a cab through an app.
The action has also opened the door for the newly launched Bharat Ta#Enforcement, #CabOperators,, which has entered the Chandigarh market at a time when its established competitors are facing regulatory restrictions.
The Chandigarh Administration has now sought the Centre’s intervention to go a step further and block the applications of the suspended aggregators in the UT. The move is aimed at stopping drivers from continuing to accept bookings through the apps despite the suspension of their licences.
For commuters, however, the regulatory action has created a new problem: choice has virtually disappeared from the app-based cab market.
Until recently, commuters in Chandigarh could compare fares and availability on multiple platforms before booking a ride. That option has now largely vanished.
With the licences of Uber, Ola, Rapido and inDrive suspended, Bharat Taxi has emerged as the principal app-based alternative. The service was launched in Chandigarh on September 18, bringing the cooperative model into a market suddenly left without its established private competitors.
The development has given Bharat Taxi a ready market from its first day of operation. Instead of having to fight for passengers in a crowded market, the new platform has entered at a time when four familiar names have been forced off the road by regulatory action.
The change has not been without inconvenience.
Commuters have reported difficulty in getting rides and complaints of higher fares from available services. With fewer platforms to choose from, passengers have limited ability to compare prices or switch to another aggregator when a fare appears excessive.
For many, the problem is not simply the price of an individual ride but the absence of alternatives.
In a normal app-based market, a passenger unhappy with the fare quoted on one platform can check another. In Chandigarh, that competitive cushion has effectively disappeared.
The Chandigarh Administration, meanwhile, has intensified enforcement against drivers who continue to accept bookings through the suspended platforms.
Transport officials are conducting surprise checks and taking action against vehicles found operating through the four aggregators despite the suspension of their licences.
The regulatory action stems from alleged violations of the Motor Vehicles Aggregators Rules, 2025, with issues including fares, insurance requirements for drivers, safety standards and other conditions governing aggregator operations.
The administration’s position is that suspension of an aggregator’s licence cannot be meaningful if vehicles continue to take bookings through its application.
That has become another challenge for the administration.
Suspending an aggregator’s licence does not automatically remove its application from a passenger’s smartphone. The platforms can still technically be accessed, allowing passengers and drivers to attempt to arrange rides.
To plug this gap, the Chandigarh Administration has approached the Centre seeking intervention to block the applications within the Union Territory.
The proposal effectively seeks to turn a regulatory suspension into a technological one—preventing the platforms from facilitating bookings even if their applications remain installed on users’ phones.
The Chandigarh experiment has produced an unusual situation.
The administration is enforcing rules intended to regulate the rapidly expanding aggregator industry, but the simultaneous suspension of four major platforms has also eliminated much of the competition that commuters previously relied upon.
That raises an obvious consumer question: what happens to fares and service quality when passengers have nowhere else to go?
For the administration, the answer lies in ensuring that every aggregator complies with the rules. For commuters, the immediate concern is more basic—getting a cab at a reasonable fare.
And for Bharat Taxi, the timing could hardly be more consequential. It has entered Chandigarh not merely as another competitor, but at a moment when almost all of its established competitors have been pushed out of the market.
