Ola, Uber will train one lakh drivers for government now

The Indian government has sought help from Ola and Uber, asking them to train one lakh commercial drivers annually, majority of them women.

In a bid to address the shortage of trained drivers, the government has asked the taxi aggregators to set up driver training institutes in small towns.

Top officials of the road transport and highways ministry raised the issue in a recent meeting with senior executives of Uber.

"Operations of Uber have grown massively in the country. There's a huge shortfall in supply for commercial drivers. We want these technology-based app companies to train one lakh drivers a year," a senior transport ministry official told ET.

While Ola and Uber will train drivers, the government will make sure that they get a commercial driving licence in less time. Presently, it takes one year to obtain a commercial licence and the government is mulling to reduce it to three months.

According to a road ministry estimate, over 1.6 million vehicles in India are licensed to run as city cabs but there are not as many quality drivers. According to an estimate, India's organised taxi-hailing market is estimated to grow to $15 billion by 2022 from the current $1.2 billion.

"We have already told Uber to train drivers. Ola executives are meeting us shortly. We want them to commit to training drivers every year as they will need them too because of growing demand and also because they have their own fleet growing," the official told ET.

This programme will also give impetus to PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Skill India’.

"It will be like a short-term skill development course and we will ensure that all aspirants who complete this course get commercial licences in three months," the transport ministry official quoted above said.