State-Backed Bharat Taxi To Be Launched Next Month

Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah yesterday informed the Parliament that the new state-backed ride-hailing service, called “Bharat Taxi”, will be launched next month.

As per news agency PTI, Shah said, “Rooted in the principles of cooperation, transparency and shared ownership, Sahakar Taxi stands as a people-centric alternative to traditional ride-hailing platforms. After completion of the requisite formalities, Bharat Taxi will be launched in January 2026”.

In a written reply before the Lok Sabha, the home minister also said that the new app will look to “free the country’s commercial vehicle drivers from (their) dependency on private companies”. He also noted that the new service will enable drivers to keep full earnings from each ride.

Shah also said that the transparent pricing model of the new platform will be “beneficial” to both drivers and passengers. Additionally, profits from the cooperative society (Sahkar Taxi Cooperative Ltd. (STCL) that will operate the app) will be “distributed directly to drivers”.

Speaking about the features of the new service, Shah added that the app will support a multilingual interface, vehicle tracking and 24/7 customer service. 

“Salient features of the Bharat Taxi app include user friendly mobile ride booking, transparent fare, vehicle tracking, support for multilingual interfaces and 24/7 customer services to enhance accessibility, secure and verified onboarding, inclusive mobility, tech enabled support and safety measures to the citizens,” added the Union minister. 

This comes a month after the Centre began piloting the new offering last month. The app was reportedly rolled out at the Delhi International Airport on November 10, followed by a launch in Gujarat’s Rajkot. 

Bharat Taxi is said to have witnessed strong early traction, and has onboarded more than 37,000 driver registrations as of November-end.

Previous reports suggested that the government has internally set a target of launching Bharat Taxi in several metro cities by March 2026, with plans to onboard 1 Lakh drivers by 2030. 

Operating under the aegis of the Union cooperation ministry and National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Bharat Taxi will be housed under STCL. While dairy giant Amul’s managing director Jayen Mehta has been elected as the chairman of the entity, National Cooperative Development Corporation deputy MF Rohit Gupta has been elected as vice-chairman of the cooperative. 

The announcement of the launch also comes two months after NeGD signed a pact with STCL to offer inputs on user interface design and integration of Bharat Taxi platform with other digital platforms such as DigiLocker and UMANG. 

Once fully operationalised, the new app will take on giants like Uber, Ola and Rapido. Overall, Bharat Taxi will vie for a piece of India’s growing ride-hailing economy, which is projected to become a $7.6 Bn opportunity by 2028.