Bharat Taxi vs Uber vs Ola vs Rapido: Is Government's New Taxi Service Cheapest?

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Thursday launched Bharat Taxi, India’s first cooperative-based ride-hailing platform, at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The Ministry has positioned it as a “citizen-centric” alternative to aggregator apps, with drivers, called Sarathis, placed at the centre of ownership and value creation.

What Bharat Taxi is, and why it was needed

Bharat Taxi is being pitched as a cooperative model designed to address long-running complaints from drivers about commission-heavy platforms and unpredictable surge pricing. According to the Ministry, the service will operate on a zero-commission and surge-free model, with profits distributed to drivers and social security features such as insurance and retirement options. According to the announcement, drivers pay a fixed daily fee of ₹30 to access the app instead of a per-ride commission cut model prevalent on other cab aggregators.

The promise for riders is straightforward: more predictable fares. The question is whether it is also cheaper in real-world bookings.

What the screenshots show (Noida–Delhi NCR test)

The screenshots below compare estimated fares across apps for two trips, one shorter local ride and one longer airport run, around the same time window.

Trip 1: Work to Home — A distance of nearly 20km
On this route, Bharat Taxi’s Cab Economy showed ₹276, while Ola’s Mini showed ₹273–₹289, and Rapido asked a fare of ₹260 for its ‘Economy’ cab. In this specific sample, Ola is essentially at parity (and can even be slightly cheaper at the low end), so Bharat Taxi is not clearly undercutting Ola or Rapido here. However, at ₹211, Uber was the cheapest cab option at the time.

Trip 2: Work to Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi) — A distance of nearly 48km
For the airport trip, Bharat Taxi’s Cab Economy is shown at ₹733. Uber’s closest comparable option shown is Uber Go at ₹760.35, with Go Sedan at ₹765.40. Ola let me “book any” cab in the range of ₹837–₹853, while its cheapest cab service, Mini, showed a fare of ₹837, which is notably higher than both Bharat Taxi and Uber at this moment. Meanwhile, Rapido's Cab Economy was priced at ₹709, making it the cheapest cab option, while Cab Premium's fare of ₹783 was on par with Bharat Taxi's Cab Priority at ₹793 at the time.

So, is Bharat Taxi the cheapest?

For these sample trips, Bharat Taxi appears competitive. It is cheaper than Uber and Ola for the longer airport run, but only roughly equal to Ola and Rapido and costlier than Uber on the shorter city ride. That suggests its “no surge” pitch may matter as much as, or more than, absolute lowest pricing. Since these fares were calculated during off-peak hours, the fares will likely rise variably across apps, based on the distance and availability of cabs.

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