After years of regulatory hurdles and repeated attempts to rein in the city’s growing e-rickshaw fleet, the transport department began formal action against vehicles flouting mandatory norms, issuing notices to around 70 dealers and owners linked to 171 e-rickshaws on Wednesday. In its first concrete move to curb illegal operations, the department initiated proceedings that could eventually lead to suspension of registration and scrapping of non-compliant vehicles, with nearly 40,000 e-rickshaws under scrutiny following the Allahabad high court’s intervention.
In an affidavit submitted before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court in 2025, the transport department acknowledged that more than 70% of e-rickshaw and e-auto owners had not obtained mandatory fitness certificates. In 2024, Lucknow police divided the city into 16 zones and allotted designated operating areas to 23,761 e-rickshaws through a lottery-based colour-coding system. However, an HT reality check in September 2024 found that drivers continued operating outside their allotted zones, with many unaware of the QR-code mechanism. The Lucknow Municipal Corporation’s proposal to establish 45 designated stands for autos and e-rickshaws also failed to provide a sustained solution. After the high court struck down earlier restrictions on ownership numbers and registrations in 2025, the department is focusing on enforcing existing fitness, insurance and registration norms. During a hearing on a PIL filed by Suraj Singh Visen, a division bench of Justice Alok Mathur and Justice Amitabh Kumar Rai was informed that around 80,000 e-rickshaws were operating in Lucknow.
On August 21, 2026, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government over the unchecked rise in e-rickshaws, observing that it could not remain in a “state of slumber”.
