Bumpy ride as India's taxi-app firms face safety concern, protesting cabbies

Mumbai

INDIA's ultra-competitive app-based taxi-hailing market has quickly become a multi-billion-dollar industry, but controversy surrounding safety, rejected licences and protesting cabbies threatens to slam the brakes on its spectacular rise.

Domestic company Ola Cabs and US-based Uber are booming, fuelled by a rising number of professionals wanting an easy-to-book, clean and air-conditioned cab in India's rapidly growing and congested cities.

"We have barely scratched the surface. We need to be in every corner of India and it is a huge country, so the potential is huge," Ola spokesman Anand Subramanian told AFP.

But it hasn't been a completely smooth ride, with Indian authorities rejecting Uber and Ola's applications to operate in New Delhi, even impounding…