Bharat Taxi expands cooperative ride-hailing model with 7.76 lakh registered drivers
The indigenous platform has onboarded over 40 lakh customers and is gradually expanding operations while enabling drivers to become co-owners instead of paying commissions to aggregators.
At present, Bharat Taxi is operational in Delhi-NCR and Gujarat.
NEW DELHI: Bharat Taxi, the cooperative ride-hailing platform launched under the Ministry of Cooperation, has registered 7.76 lakh drivers and enrolled 40.84 lakh customers as it expands its services across the country through a phased rollout.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, cooperation minister Amit Shah said Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited (STCL), which operates the Bharat Taxi platform, was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, on June 6, 2025, by eight national-level cooperative institutions. The platform was officially launched on February 5, 2026.
The minister said Bharat Taxi introduces a cooperative-based mobility model that replaces the conventional “driver-partner” system with a “Sarathi-owner” model, under which drivers become members and co-owners of the cooperative. They participate in its governance through representation on the Board of Management and share in the cooperative’s surplus.
Operating on a zero-commission model, Bharat Taxi allows drivers to retain their earnings while distributing the cooperative’s surplus among its Sarathi members. The platform combines cooperative ownership with technology-enabled services, including transparent fare structures, real-time vehicle tracking, multilingual mobile applications and round-the-clock customer support.
The government said the platform has been developed as an indigenous alternative to investment-driven ride-hailing aggregators.
According to the minister, the rollout is being implemented in phases, with expansion in individual cities and states depending on operational readiness, the availability of Sarathis, completion of statutory requirements and coordination with state governments, cooperative institutions and other stakeholders.
The implementation process includes driver registration and onboarding, customer enrolment, training programmes and the gradual expansion of services to identified cities and states.
At present, Bharat Taxi is operational in Delhi-NCR and Gujarat.
Shah also clarified that Bharat Taxi and Yatri Sathi are separate mobility platforms operating under different institutional frameworks. While Bharat Taxi is managed by Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, Yatri Sathi is a taxi aggregation platform developed, owned and operated by the Department of Information Technology and Electronics, Government of West Bengal, for services within the state.
