"I'm Transport Minister": How Illegal Bike Taxi Op Was Exposed In Mumbai

Illegal bike taxis are not functional in Mumbai, Transport Minister of Maharashtra Pratap Sarnaik was told by a senior official. However, rather than taking this at face value, he decided to test the claim. How? He booked a ride himself from Mantralaya to Dadar using the Rapido app, using a different name.

In the next ten minutes, the bike reached his location to pick him up. He offered Rs 500 as fare to the driver of that bike while telling him that bike taxis were illegal in Mumbai. "I am the Transport Minister. These rules are for your benefit," the minister was heard saying to the visibly surprised rider.

"You came here, for that I am giving you Rs 500," he said. However, the rider refused to accept the money.

मंत्रालय येथूनचं ट्रॅप ऑपरेशन - अनधिकृत रॅपिडो बाईक टॅक्सी सेवांवर थेट कारवाई...#PratapSarnaik #TransportMinister#MaharashtraTransport #ActionAgainstIllegalBikeTaxi@rapidobikeapp pic.twitter.com/K81GiHydIb

— Pratap Baburao Sarnaik (@PratapSarnaik) July 2, 2025

No action was taken against the rider. "We will not gain anything by filing a case against a poor person like you. But the people behind the illegal operation should be punished. That is our intention," the minister said.

The state government is yet to grant official permission to any app-based bike aggregator to operate in Maharashtra.

As per the recently announced e-bike policy, only companies that comply with specific norms to operate services in cities with a population of more than 1 lakh are allowed. The government has yet to notify the rules, which makes such services illegal.

However, when the minister asked the official to cross-check whether the illegal bike taxi application and services were operational, the official assured that the app and service were not operational. He said, in an "official" answer, that there were no unauthorised bike taxi apps in Mumbai or other cities.

Last month, the Maharashtra Transport Commissioner's office lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against Rapido and Uber companies at Azad Maidan police station for allegedly operating bike taxis illegally.