The Union government has clarified that “bike taxis” are not defined under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and therefore do not have a separate legal status under Central law.

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that although the term is not recognised in the law, the Centre has issued the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025 to provide a framework for State governments to regulate transport aggregators, including those involving two-wheeler taxis.

Under these guidelines, State governments may allow aggregation of transport and non-transport motorcycles for passenger rides as part of shared mobility systems. The government said this could help reduce traffic congestion and pollution while also making travel more affordable and creating livelihood opportunities.

The Centre also stated that it does not maintain separate data specifically on bike taxis. Instead, it relies on figures from the VAHAN vehicle registration database for registered two-wheeler transport vehicles. According to the data, there were 16,736 such vehicles in 2023, 19,509 in 2024, 20,111 in 2025 and 1,706 registered up to January 2026.

Similarly, accident data is not maintained separately for bike taxis. The Ministry shared combined figures for all two-wheelers, which show that accidents increased from 43,922 in 2023 to 51,521 in 2025, with the number of persons involved rising to 1,69,641 in 2025.

The government further noted that enforcement of transport and road safety rules falls under the jurisdiction of State governments and Union Territories.