Athira Sethu
Kochi, 5 May 2025
In April 2025, BluSmart electric taxi suddenly halted its operations. This rendered hundreds of drivers unemployed in Delhi and surrounding areas. The drivers are currently protesting as they had not been paid and had not heard from the company.
At the time it closed down, BluSmart employed more than 10,000 drivers through its app. These drivers drove electric vehicles to transport customers. Some of them relied on this business for their earnings for their families.
The firm shut down following a SEBI report, India’s financial regulator. The report indicated that BluSmart’s promoters had been involved in document forgery and illegal transfer of money, particularly with regards to another firm named Gensol Engineering. Due to this, SEBI prohibited them from serving on company boards or raising funds through the stock market.
Since then, drivers have been kept in the dark. They are unable to log into the BluSmart app, and no messages or payments have been sent to them by the company. “We’ve been logged out of the app since Thursday. We don’t receive the OTP to log in again. It’s like we’ve been abandoned altogether,” said one of the driver-partners.
On Sunday, numerous drivers gathered to protest in various areas of Delhi and NCR. They demanded three things:
- Payment of their outstanding wages
- Assistance in getting new employment
- Accountability on the part of BluSmart and the government
BluSmart was the primary source of income for most of the drivers. They used to earn between Rs 25 to Rs 40 an hour and were guaranteed a minimum of Rs 400 per day. The drivers used to earn between Rs 12,000 to Rs 50,000 per month, and the company provided respectable bonuses to those who worked extra hours.
Now, unemployed, without a salary, and without explanations, the drivers fear for their well-being. They are calling upon the company and the government to intervene and act.
