Delhi E-Rickshaw Draft: 2.5 Lakh Cap

For a decade the e-rickshaw has been one of the cheapest ways to start earning on Delhi's roads: a vehicle costing less than a small car, no fuel bill, and a ride market that never runs dry. That open door is now being fitted with a lock. On 18 October 2026 the Delhi Transport Department issued a circular releasing the draft Delhi E-Rickshaw (Registration and Operation) Scheme, 2026 for public consultation. The draft caps the number of e-rickshaws the city will register at 2.5 Lakh, requires every one of them to carry a digital E-Rickshaw Compliance Certificate valid for two years, and ties each certificate to one vehicle and one named driver. This article sets out what the draft says, how it differs from the version floated in May, and what a used e-rickshaw buyer must confirm on the registration record before any money changes hands.

What the Draft Scheme Says

The draft was released through a Transport Department circular dated 18 October 2026, and comments from stakeholders and the public are invited within 30 days of publication, as reported by UNI and other outlets. It is a draft, not a notification. It takes effect only when it is published in the Official Gazette, and from that date it is proposed to run for five years unless it is modified, extended or withdrawn. The main provisions, as reported, are these:

One point where reports differ is the scope of the compliance certificate. Some coverage describes the ECC as a certificate that also records battery compliance and insurance validity; other reports describe it more narrowly as the operating permission attached to the registration. Until the final text is published, treat the ECC as an operating licence for the vehicle-and-driver pair and expect that insurance and battery standards will be checked somewhere in the process, whether inside the certificate or alongside it.

From "one per licence" to "five per individual"

This is the second time in 2026 that a 2.5 Lakh cap has appeared in a Delhi draft. The first was in May, when the draft Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy proposed the same ceiling and, alongside it, a rule allowing only one e-rickshaw per driving licence. We covered that version in our piece on Delhi's one-e-rickshaw-per-licence proposal. The October draft keeps the cap but changes the ownership rule. An individual residing in Delhi may now own up to five e-rickshaws; organisations may own up to 100; and anyone running 25 or more needs an aggregator licence.

The practical difference is large. Under the May version a person could own one e-rickshaw and had to drive it. Under the October version a small owner can hold a handful and put drivers on them, but each vehicle still needs its own ECC naming one driver. The one-vehicle-one-driver link has moved from the licence to the certificate. That matters for anyone buying an e-rickshaw they do not intend to drive themselves, and we return to it below.

Why a Cap Changes the Used Market

Delhi has already shown what a ceiling does to a vehicle category. New e-auto registrations were frozen in the city after the permit ceiling of around 1 Lakh was reached, as Business Today reported in July 2026, and the draft EV policy proposes that only electric autos be registered from 1 January 2027. In a capped market, the asset that holds value is not the vehicle but the registration attached to it. A registered e-rickshaw with a valid record becomes a ticket into a closed club; an unregistered one, or a locally assembled one that was never on the registry, becomes a vehicle you cannot legally operate and therefore cannot resell.

That second category is bigger than most buyers realise. Our earlier report on the 4.75 Lakh unregistered e-rickshaws counted nationally explains how so many vehicles ended up outside the registry: informal assembly, dealers who skipped the paperwork, and years of lax enforcement. In Delhi the May reporting suggested the unregistered fleet might be as large as the registered one. The draft gives existing owners 90 days from notification to regularise, but it is reasonable to expect that regularisation will only be possible for vehicles that can be registered in the first place, which means a type-approved model with proper documents. A home-built three-wheeler is unlikely to clear that bar, and once the cap is reached, the door shuts on it entirely.

The one-vehicle-one-driver link

The ECC is proposed to name one vehicle and one driver. The owner may be a different person from the driver; the draft allows an individual up to five vehicles, so it clearly expects some owners to employ drivers. But the certificate itself is tied to a specific driver. If you buy a used e-rickshaw and put your cousin on it, the ECC must name your cousin. If he leaves and you hire someone else, the certificate for that vehicle has to be dealt with, and the draft does not yet spell out how quickly or at what cost. Until it does, assume that changing drivers is an administrative step rather than a handshake.

Exactly What to Confirm Before You Pay

The check is on the registration number, and it comes before the test drive and well before any money. The Vahan Verify RC Details check on VahanBazaar.in costs Rs. 99 and returns what the national vehicle registry holds against that number. For a used e-rickshaw in Delhi, read it with five questions in mind.

First, does the number exist at all? If the check returns no record, the vehicle is not registered, whatever the seller's paperwork looks like. Second, does the owner name match the person selling? E-rickshaws change hands informally more than any other category, and a vehicle still registered to an owner two sales ago cannot be transferred to you by the person in front of you.

Third, is the vehicle class an e-rickshaw and is it recorded as a transport vehicle? The draft requires transport-vehicle registration, and a record showing a different class or a non-transport category is a problem you will inherit. Fourth, are the registration and fitness dates valid? An expired fitness means the vehicle is not legally on the road today, let alone eligible for a certificate tomorrow. Fifth, is there a financer or hypothecation on the record? A lender's name means the loan has not been closed, and the RTO will not transfer the vehicle until it is.

The sequence that protects your money

1. Check the RC on the number first. Run the Rs. 99 RC check before you discuss price. If there is no record, walk away; if the owner name does not match, ask the seller to explain before you go further.
2. Match the record to the person and the vehicle. Compare the owner name on the record with the seller's ID, and the chassis number on the record with the number stamped on the vehicle's chassis plate. A mismatch on either is a reason to stop, not to negotiate.
3. Close every open item before you pay. A financer on record means the seller clears the loan and gets the hypothecation removed first. An expired fitness means the seller renews it. Re-run the check once they say it is done; records take time to update and a receipt is not a record.
4. Transfer, then apply for the certificate. File the ownership transfer with a clean record. When the scheme is notified, the ECC application in your name, naming your driver, starts from a registration that will not fail the basic checks.

A token advance is where most e-rickshaw deals go wrong. Rs. 10,000 handed over on a handshake is hard to recover when the registry turns out to be empty. Keep the advance small, put in writing that it is refundable if the record does not match, and hand it over only after the first check. The whole check costs less than a day's fares.

For Existing Owners: Regularise, Then List

If you own an e-rickshaw in Delhi and are thinking of selling, the draft has changed the order of operations. Once notified, the scheme gives existing owners 90 days to regularise. A vehicle that is registered as a transport vehicle, in your name, with a valid fitness and no lender, will be worth more inside a capped market than it is today, because it carries one of a limited number of places in the fleet. A vehicle that is not on the registry, or is registered to someone else, loses value with every day the window runs down.

So the job is in two parts. First, use the consultation period and the 90-day window to get the record straight: complete any pending transfer into your own name, renew fitness, clear the loan and have the hypothecation removed, and keep the vehicle free of bull bars and other fittings the draft prohibits. Our paperwork checklist for selling a used auto or e-rickshaw lists the documents in order.

Second, list it where the buyer can see that the record is clean. A verified listing on VahanBazaar.in costs Rs. 99 and is built from the registration record on your number, so the owner name and vehicle details are drawn from the registry rather than typed in by hand. After this draft, that is exactly the assurance a buyer with Rs. 1 Lakh in hand is looking for.

What This Means for Used E-Rickshaw Buyers

The draft can still change; the consultation runs for 30 days, and the Gazette notification may be weeks or months away. But the direction is fixed. Delhi intends to count its e-rickshaws, cap the count, and attach every vehicle to a named driver through a certificate that has to be renewed every two years. In that world, the value of a used e-rickshaw sits in its registration record, not its paint. A buyer who confirms the record first is buying a place in a capped fleet. A buyer who skips the check may be buying a vehicle that can never be certified, and that no one will buy from them later. The habit is simple: check the number before the money moves.

This article is general information drawn from published reports of a draft scheme that has not yet been notified. Provisions may change before the final text is published in the Official Gazette, and the procedure for the compliance certificate has not yet been announced. Confirm the position with the Delhi Transport Department or a lawyer before you act on it.