The Kerala government has readied a State Motor Vehicle Aggregator Policy, based on Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020 of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, to streamline operation of public transport vehicles, especially long-distance buses.
Official sources cited the need for formulating rules based on the policy for its effective implementation.
The policy released earlier this month aims at ensuring responsible and effective conduct of business by vehicle-aggregator firms/cooperative societies, and to regulate their licensing. The term aggregator, defined as ‘a digital intermediary or market place for a passenger to connect with a driver for transportation’, was included in the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act 2019. Subsequently, the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) released the guidelines binding on the aggregators in 2020 and States were permitted to issue licences to transport aggregators.
