Rapido bike taxi app removed from stores in India
- Maharashtra's cyber department on May 16 asked Apple and Google to remove Uber, Ola and Rapido from app stores over bike taxi operations. - Notices issued on May 15 cited Section 79(3)(b) of India's IT Act, while officials said unauthorised bike taxi services were the target. - Apple, Google and the ride-hailing companies have not publicly detailed compliance timelines following Maharashtra's notices.
Maharashtra escalated its action against app-based bike taxis on May 16 by asking Apple and Google to remove Uber, Ola and Rapido from their app stores in India, according to multiple Indian media reports. The action followed notices issued by the Maharashtra State Cyber Department a day earlier over alleged unauthorised bike taxi operations in the state. Reports said the move was aimed at the bike taxi service offered through the platforms, not necessarily their auto-rickshaw or cab businesses. Rapido's consumer app remained listed on Google Play and Apple's India App Store in store pages cached and crawled by search results in recent days. ### Did Rapido's app itself disappear from Indian app stores? Google Play and Apple's India App Store both still showed Rapido's main consumer app in indexed store pages available through search results as of pages crawled on May 14-16. The Google Play listing identified the app as "Rapido: Bike-Taxi, Auto & Cabs," while Apple's India App Store carried the same branding and developer name, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited. (indianexpress.com) Those listings do not by themselves prove live availability to every user, but they undercut the claim that Rapido had already been broadly removed nationwide on May 16. ### What exactly did Maharashtra order Apple and Google to do? The Maharashtra State Cyber Department issued notices on May 15 seeking the removal of Uber, Ola and Rapido from app stores over alleged illegal bike taxi operations, Indian Express, Financial Express and News18 reported. Those reports said the notices invoked Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and were sent under the office of the Additional Director General of Police, Maharashtra Cyber. (play.google.com) CNBC-TV18 reported Maharashtra cyber officials as saying the responsibility was to remove the bike taxi option and that how platforms complied "is not our problem." ### Was this only about Rapido? Uber, Ola and Rapido were all named in the Maharashtra action reported on May 16. Indian Express and Financial Express both said the state's crackdown covered multiple ride-hailing platforms offering two-wheeler taxi services, after Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik pushed for action. That makes the Rapido story part of a broader state effort against app-based bike taxis rather than a company-specific app-store takedown. (indianexpress.com) ### Why are bike taxis under pressure in India again? Karnataka had already become a flashpoint in 2025, when bike taxi operations were halted after a High Court order and Rapido removed the bike taxi option in the state, replacing it with a "bike parcel" service, according to Moneycontrol, Times of India and Hindustan Times. Those reports said the state had not framed rules permitting bike taxis, and transport officials warned aggregators against continuing service. (indianexpress.com) Maharashtra's latest move shows regulatory pressure spreading beyond Karnataka, though each state's legal position is separate. ### What can commuters and drivers verify right now? Users in India can verify the latest status in two places: the app-store listings and the in-app ride options available in their city. Maharashtra officials told local media the focus was on unauthorised bike taxi operations, while store listings indexed on May 14-16 still showed Rapido's app pages live. That means the immediate question is less whether one app vanished nationwide and more whether Apple, Google and the platforms change listings or disable bike taxi features in response to the notices. (moneycontrol.com) ### What happens next after Maharashtra's notices? May 15 is the date on the notices cited by Indian media, and any next step will depend on whether Apple, Google, Uber, Ola and Rapido comply, challenge the order or narrow access only to the bike taxi feature. Pratap Sarnaik has also sought legal action against the companies, according to local reports. As of May 16, the clearest public markers were the Maharashtra cyber notices and the still-searchable app-store pages for Rapido in India. (cnbctv18.com) (indianexpress.com)
