New Delhi: Can a cooperative model fix public mobility?
Every morning in India’s megacities, commuters can be seen jostling for space on overcrowded buses or haggling with auto drivers who quote fares on a whim. For most office-goers, options are limited — stand in endless queues for a bus or open a ride-hailing app and brace for surge pricing and cancellations, or both.
This daily grind captures India’s continuing urban transport crisis. Despite years of policies and plans, public transport in most cities remains inadequate and overburdened. Buses—the backbone of urban mobility—are in short supply. Metros have grown fast in some cities, but they only cover certain corridors and can’t handle last-mile trips or spread-out journeys.
Into this chaos comes what many see as an unlikely challenger—Bharat Taxi, a cooperative mobility platform being billed as the “Amul model for taxis,” where drivers are shareholders rather than gig workers governed by algorithms.
Run by the Delhi–based Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited, with Amul’s Managing Director Jayen Mehta as chairman, the initiative is backed by the Ministry of Cooperation and major institutions such as IFFCO, NAFED and GCMMF (Amul). Likely to be formally launched in January, the cooperative has an authorised share capital of ₹300 crore, with eight primary promoters committing an initial ₹80 crore— ₹10 crore each.
“The idea is to benefit the two most important stakeholders. Customers get stable pricing, while drivers retain their full earnings without paying commissions. We have also ensured social security benefits such as insurance for drivers. More than 1.1 lakh drivers have already registered in Delhi-NCR and around 3,000 in Rajkot ahead of the January 1 launch,” said Ashok Thakur, chairman of NAFED and one of the promoters. “If the model succeeds, we will expand it to other cities,” he added.
For drivers, who feel short-changed by what they describe as constant rule changes by aggregators, the appeal seems clear. “These platforms keep tweaking fees and disown us the moment we’re in trouble,” said Rajesh, a Delhi-based cab driver who has signed up with Bharat Taxi. “Here, I don’t mind paying a small subscription because we finally get some benefits like legal and financial help, and low-interest vehicle loans.”
Experts, however, caution that Bharat Taxi must contend with several hurdles on the road to success. “Pricing is a core challenge. Dynamic surge models used by Ola and Uber tempt drivers with higher peak-hour earnings and passengers with off-peak discounts. So, commuters may cherry-pick Bharat Taxi only for stable fares during rush hours, while drivers might drift back to surge-based platforms at other times. This fragmented loyalty could hinder the cooperative’s ability to scale,” said Shreya Gadepalli, an urban mobility expert.
In fact, there are already murmurs of discontent from some auto unions. “We don’t want bikes with private number plates on the app — they hurt our livelihood,” said Rajendra Soni, general secretary of the Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh, adding that they are not “encouraging drivers to join the new platform”.
In fact, some of the scepticism is rooted in recent history. Over the past few years, tensions between ride-hailing platforms and driver unions have led to driver-led alternatives with mixed results.
In Bengaluru, for example, the Auto Rickshaw Drivers’ Union ( ARDU) launched Namma Yatri in November 2022 on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) network. It took off quickly, enrolling thousands of drivers and earning praise as a zero-commission success. But by late 2023, the union walked away, alleging that control had shifted away from drivers.
Soon after, the union launched Metro Mitra, an app focused on Metro station connectivity, developed with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). It offered government-set fares ( ₹30 for the first 2 km, ₹15/km after, plus a ₹10 app fee) and aimed to restore confidence in meter-based rides. But Metro Mitra has struggled to take off.
“Drivers did not like having to wait long at stations with low demand, while passengers wanted citywide flexibility. It didn’t work for either side,” said Rudra Murthy, general secretary of the Autorickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU).
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