Days after cab aggregator Uber’s announcement to provide car-pooling facilIty in Delhin-NCR, rival Ola, the India-based car booking platform has rolled out similar initiative, which will allow residents in Delhi-NCR to pool rides using their private cars through Ola’s app.
This initiative is expected to help citizens comply with the Delhi’s first of its kind experiment to control the rising pollution by implement the odd-even formula for private cars starting January 1, 2016.
With CarPool, users in Delhi will be able to take advantage of Ola's sophisticated route matching algorithms to pool rides in their car with fellow passengers looking to travel in the same route.
Ishan Gupta, Category Head, Shared Mobility at Ola said, "CarPool is a major innovation towards building sustainable mobility for our cities at scale. We are cognizant of the fact that 13 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India, with vehicular pollution being the major source of pollution. CarPool will bring economy, convenience and the comfort of travelling with friends even to those who drive their own vehicles.”
He added, “This has potential to unlock massive idle transportation inventory in our cities, with the ease of Ola's technology that millions already use. We are committed to building mobility for a billion Indians and we believe that sustainable initiatives like CarPool, Ola Share and Ola Shuttle will go a long way in realizing our mission."
CarPool will now appear as a separate category on the Ola app in Delhi-NCR, using which customers can choose to share rides in their private cars.
First time hosts can register by feeding their vehicle details on the Ola app and make themselves available by clicking on ‘I am driving’ and entering their destination.
Founded in Jan 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola (formerly Olacabs), is India's most popular mobile app for transportation.Ola has presence in 102 cities in India and has over 350,000 vehicles.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
