₹25 ride: India’s bike taxis are cheap, fast and still fighting for a place on the road

For Rs 25, you can get on the back of a motorcycle and travel up to 3 km under Uber's Pachisi campaign. It is the sort of price that makes a commuter look twice. But that Rs 25 ride is about more than a promotion. It captures the central promise of India's bike taxi industry — a ubiquitous vehicle on roads, put a passenger on the back and use technology to turn it into an affordable, on-demand form of transport.

Yet the industry's biggest problem has never really been finding customers. It has been finding a place within transport rules. Bike taxis have found a ready market among commuters looking for a cheaper and faster way through increasingly congested cities, but the business has spent years navigating bans, court battles, competing state regulations and questions over whether fares low enough to attract passengers can also generate sustainable returns for riders and platforms.

Also Read: Uber rolls out bike taxi services in seven more cities of West Bengal

From a spare motorcycle to a mobility business

India has millions of two-wheelers, roads are increasingly congested and a motorcycle can move through traffic more easily than a car or an auto. An app can then match someone who needs a short ride with someone who owns the vehicle. The platforms do not own large fleets; instead, they connect passengers with independently owned motorcycles, using technology to match demand and supply in real time.

West Bengal was among the earliest to formally recognise the model, allowing two-wheelers to be registered as contract carriages for bike-taxi operations in 2016. Other states took a more cautious approach, leading to years of bans, enforcement action and court battles.

Karnataka became one of the industry's biggest regulatory flashpoints, with authorities treating bike taxis as unauthorised, but the Karnataka High Court in January 2026 directed the state transport department to issue contract-carriage permits to motorcycles, affirming their eligibility as passenger transport vehicles under the existing framework.

The missing few kilometres

For Atul Jairaj, Partner at Deloitte India, bike taxis are essentially a response to a gap in India's urban transport system. They solve the last-mile connectivity problem while remaining more affordable than hired three-wheelers and offering a more point-to-point journey than buses or shared vehicles.

On congested roads, motorcycles can also cut time, making them useful for commuters.

Green Drive Mobility, a cab rental and logistics provider, sees the same demand drivers: “time, affordability, and convenience.”

For a 5-10 km journey, a car can be both expensive and slow, while public transport may be cheaper but may not take a commuter directly to the destination. A motorcycle can bridge that gap. “What we are seeing on the ground is that customers are increasingly asking one question: ‘Can I get there faster and at a price that makes sense?’” the company said.

Why Rs 25 matters

According to estimates cited in the CUTS International report, bike taxis typically charge around Rs 8-10 per kilometre, compared with Rs 15-18 for autorickshaws and Rs 22-25 for taxis.

Also Read: Transport panel finds multiple violations by all 3 bike taxi operators in Mumbai metropolitan region

Rapido's Rohit Rathod, VP Operations, sees affordability as one of the category's biggest advantages. “For commuters, bike taxis offer a compelling combination of affordability and convenience,” he said, adding that industry estimates put India's bike taxi market at about $1.46 billion by 2030.

Rapido, which pioneered the category, is also seeing demand spread beyond the biggest metros, with bike taxis becoming an increasingly important part of mobility in Tier II, Tier III India.

The reason is the sheer availability of the asset. India's 100-110 cc motorcycles account for about 46% of total two-wheeler sales, while another 29% comes from the 110-125 cc segment, according to the CUTS report. Low purchase, maintenance costs make bikes relatively accessible to gig workers, while the ability to use an existing motorcycle for commercial trips means the bike can become an income-generating asset rather than a means of personal transport.

For Jairaj, that is part of what makes the sector economically interesting. Bike taxis indicate that consumers are becoming convenience-driven and cost-conscious, while the digital economy is making it easier to match mobility demand with riders and provide flexible earnings.

The sector is therefore bringing privately owned two-wheelers into a shared mobility system without requiring an increase in vehicle ownership.

The Centre has opened the door. States still hold the key

The Central government's position has become considerably clearer, but that has not translated into one uniform national system for bike taxis. The Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025 explicitly recognise the possibility of aggregating motorcycles. Clause 23 allows state governments to permit aggregators to aggregate non-transport motorcycles under Section 67(3) of the Motor Vehicles Act, while allowing states to prescribe conditions and levy fees.

The Centre has provided an enabling pathway, but states remain responsible for deciding how bike taxis operate within their jurisdictions. As of May, 17 states and Union Territories had notified their own aggregator rules or schemes, including Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan and Gujarat, while Punjab and Goa had circulated draft rules that had not yet been notified. Tamil Nadu has taken a more uncertain route, with authorities previously declining to issue contract-carriage permits to motorcycles. Delhi and Maharashtra have also seen judicial battles over the extent to which states can regulate or prohibit the services.

CUTS argued that permanent commercial conversion can also be expensive for workers who drive part-time or use bike taxis as a secondary source of income, making the design of regulations critical to whether the sector remains accessible to gig workers.

The economics cannot be ignored

Green Drive estimates that India's bike taxi market could reach $1.48 billion by 2030, citing Allied Market Research's projection of a 48.5% compound annual growth rate between 2022 and 2030. But the company also makes an important qualification: “The key is sustainable unit economics.”

Green Drive believes scale by itself is not enough and that the business ultimately has to work at the individual-trip and individual-vehicle level. Rapido's Rathod believes the category is nevertheless undergoing a structural shift rather than experiencing a passing burst of demand.

He expects bike taxis to become even more integrated into mobility ecosystem over the next three to five years, complementing public transport while improving access to affordable transportation and creating flexible earning opportunities for partners.

According to Dr Ritu Srivastava, Associate Professor - Economics, K J Somaiya Institute of Management, the future direction of Indian mobility appears to be determined by three factors. “First, geography: bike taxis are expanding far beyond metropolitan areas into rapidly urbanising smaller cities. They frequently cover the final mile from transit terminals that the current system is unable to reach,” she said.

“Second, convergence: aggregators are beginning to collaborate with metro operators to achieve end-to-end, single-ticket travel. Mobility is becoming more cooperative rather than competitive. The third factor is labour, which may be the largest component of all.”

Electric bikes could change the equation

Electrification could reshape those economics further. Green Drive sees electric two-wheelers as an opportunity because lower running costs could strengthen the economics of commercial operations. As charging infrastructure improves and adoption rises, the cost advantage could become meaningful, potentially allowing operators to offer affordable fares while retaining more of the revenue generated by trips.

However, much of the existing bike-taxi ecosystem is built around workers using motorcycles they already own. Moving to EVs requires financing, charging access and confidence in their commercial durability, making electrification more than simply replacing petrol bikes with electric ones.

A job market on two wheels

There is another reason policymakers are increasingly taking the industry seriously: livelihoods. The relatively low entry barrier of a motorcycle allows workers to enter the economy without buying a car or making a large investment. CUTS, citing KPMG, estimates average monthly net income for bike-taxi operators at Rs 25,000-30,000 after operating expenses. For workers who already own a two-wheeler, the platform can effectively turn idle hours into earning hours.

Rapido sees that as a central part of the category's future and has also sought to widen participation through initiatives such as Pink Mobility, or Bike Pink, aimed at women riders.

The company says its focus is not only on affordability but also on safety and inclusion, pointing to its partnership with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on the Rah-Veer road-safety initiative.

The road ahead is less about bikes than rules

The industry's biggest test, ultimately, may be whether India can preserve what makes bike taxis attractive while addressing regulators' concerns.

Safety, insurance, verification and passenger protection remain concerns. CUTS notes that many also arise in other forms of app-based mobility, but the vulnerability of a passenger riding pillion makes them particularly visible here.

Auto and taxi operators have also raised concerns about competition and livelihoods. CUTS found such tensions in Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

Uber's Pachisi campaign shows the demand for cheap, short-distance mobility. The next challenge is whether India can bring bike taxis into the transport system without losing the affordability that made them popular—and make mobility safe, regulated and viable enough.