SIM Cards, Ride Apps and Flights: What the Rules Say in Delhi

Getting connected and getting around in India is easier than most first-time visitors expect and more regulated than they realise. The rules are published, and knowing them turns a slightly opaque experience into a predictable one.

The SIM card, and its three-month ceiling

The Department of Telecommunications instruction governing subscriber verification, issued in August 2012, sets out what a foreign visitor needs and what they get.

For identity, "the copy of Passport with valid Visa stamp shall be treated as proof of identity". For address, "the address of local reference which may also be the tour operator shall be taken. In case, there is no local reference, the address of stay (hotel etc) shall be taken." A passport-size photograph is pasted on the customer acquisition form, which carries a Foreigner status category and fields for the local reference.

The validity rule is the one to plan around: a connection issued to a foreigner "should not have validity beyond the validity of the Visa", and for a foreign tourist "also not exceeding 3 months at a time even if the validity of the Visa is beyond 3 months". Operators must report such connections monthly, must disconnect immediately once a visa expires, and face a penalty of Rs 50,000 for each connection left running.

A separate 2016 instruction created a faster route for holders of the e-Visa categories India issues. BSNL may issue pre-activated prepaid SIMs to foreign nationals holding an e-Visa "at their own counter after the immigration counter at Airports", with validity not exceeding the e-Visa, no physical form-filling, no tele-verification and no local reference required.

Which network to choose

The Telecom Regulatory Authority's subscription data for the end of July 2026 gives the operator landscape. Total wireless subscribers stood at 1,306.27 million with a tele-density of 91.33 percent, and 1,204.01 million were active on the peak day.

The regulator states that private operators held 92.75 percent of the wireless market and the two state operators together 7.25 percent. Jio and Airtel each added roughly 2.5 million subscribers in that month alone.

Prices for the calls and data you buy vary less than fuel and alcohol across states. Number portability has been nationwide since 20 January 2011 and cross-circle since 3 July 2015, with about 15.98 million porting requests in July 2026. A 2024 amendment bars issuing a porting code within seven days of a SIM swap or replacement, as a fraud control.

Ride-hailing, which is capped by national rule

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued the Motor Vehicles Aggregator Guidelines 2025 on 1 July 2025, under section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, revising the 2020 guidelines. States were given three months to adopt them and may add to them.

The fare provisions are specific. The base fare is what the state government notifies for the vehicle class. It applies for a minimum of three kilometres, to compensate for dead mileage. And the aggregator "shall be permitted to charge a minimum of 50% lower than the base fare and a maximum dynamic pricing of two times the base fare".

Cancellation is symmetrical: a driver cancelling without valid reason faces a penalty of 10 percent of the fare not exceeding Rs 100, and a passenger cancelling without valid reason is charged on the same scale.

Driver earnings are also floored — at least 80 percent of the applicable fare where the driver owns the vehicle, at least 60 percent where the aggregator does.

Flying domestically

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation lists twelve scheduled and scheduled commuter operators as of 31 August 2026, of which the passenger carriers are Air India, Air India Express, Alliance Air, IndiaOne Air, Star Air, IndiGo, Fly91, Akasa Air, SpiceJet and Skyhop Aviation; Blue Dart and Quikjet are cargo.

Market concentration is extreme. For July 2026:

Two carriers account for more than nine in ten domestic passengers. January to July 2026 saw 98.4 million domestic passengers against 97.8 million in the same period of 2025, a 0.64 percent annual increase.

Complaints data is published alongside and is a usable quality signal: 1.83 complaints per 10,000 passengers overall in July 2026, ranging from IndiGo at 0.9 and Star Air at 1.9 up to Alliance Air at 65.5.

Getting to and from the airport

The Delhi Metro's standard fare runs from Rs 11 for up to two kilometres to Rs 64 beyond 32 kilometres on weekdays, with lower Sunday and holiday fares — Rs 11 for anything up to five kilometres.

The Airport Express Line is priced separately. New Delhi to IGI Airport is Rs 64; Delhi Aerocity to the airport is Rs 21; New Delhi to Yashobhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 is Rs 75. Multi-trip cards bring the airport run down: ten trips for Rs 490 valid fifteen days, thirty trips for Rs 1,390 valid a calendar month, forty-five trips for Rs 1,710.

Tourist cards exist at Rs 200 for one day and Rs 500 for three, each including a Rs 50 refundable security deposit which is returned on surrendering a working card. The stored value itself is not refunded.

City check-in is available on the Airport Express for bona fide air passengers with a ticket and photo identification including a passport, opening six hours before departure and closing two and a half hours before, with baggage within 35 by 25 inches.

What this guide does not cover

No Delhi auto-rickshaw or taxi fare figures are given. The Delhi Transport Department's pages were unreachable for this guide, so the state-notified base fares that the aggregator surge cap multiplies are not stated.

Delhi's own aggregator scheme is not described. Only a procurement notice referring to a Delhi Aggregator Portal was visible; the scheme text was not.

Metro operating hours are absent. The Delhi Metro's own first and last train interfaces returned empty responses, so only fares and frequencies are stated.

No maximum number of SIMs per person is stated, because no official instrument specifying one could be located.

No Airports Authority passenger figures for Delhi are given; those pages were unreachable, and Delhi's airport is in any case operated by a joint venture rather than the Authority.

Per-operator market share percentages are computed from the regulator's published subscriber counts, since it publishes only the private-versus-public split as text.

Whether the 2012 tourist SIM rule has been amended since could not be certified; no amending instrument was found, which is not the same as none existing.