Tired of traffic? You may be able to rent a bike soon

MUMBAI: Mumbaiites might be able to hire a motorcycle and zoom past traffic jams soon. State Transport Authority (STA), chaired by the transport secretary of Maharashtra, has asked the Mumbai Traffic Police to study law-and-order-related issues of the Rent-a-motorcycle scheme and submit a report on it.

If the MTP gives a green signal, it will allow people to hire twowheelers that could cost ₹2-5 per kilometre or ₹300-500 per day, depending upon the variants. According to Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Department (MMVD) officials, their department was reluctant to issue two-wheeler renting permits under the Rent-amotorcycle scheme primarily because of security concerns raised by the police in the past. Hence, in its meeting on August 10, the STA decided to seek a fresh report from the traffic police on the law-and-order-related issues about the scheme.

Shekhar Channe, transport commissioner of the state, who is also a member of STA, said, “The STA has sought a report from the joint commissioner of the Mumbai traffic police on law-and-order-related issues about the Renta-motorcycle scheme,” Channe said. According to the resolution of the STA meeting, the authority had sought feedback on securityrelated issues pertaining to the scheme from the Maharashtra Police and Home department twice in 2016. However, it did not receive any information from either of them.

Two-wheelers can be given on rent as per the provision in section 75 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 and Rent-a-motorcycle scheme 1989. Once service providers get a licence, which is valid for five years, they can rent out bikes that are run on fossil fuels and electricity. Presently, except for Pune, the two-wheeler renting service is available nowhere in the state, though several metro cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, among others have this service. The two-wheeler renting services are also quite popular in cities like Goa and Himachal Pradesh.

The MMVD has received several applications from various two-wheeler renting companies in the past few years. The applications are pending with the STA and hence the authority wants a police report for disposing off all those applications.

The police were mainly concerned that the rented two-wheelers could be used for terrorist activities or for committing other crimes.