Several airports and railway stations in the country already have kiosks where you can book a prepaid cab and take one from outside the station. When you want to use Ola and Uber, you may have often continuously received the ‘No Cabs Available’ message or simply not been able to use either of the apps because of the mobile traffic.
But, both cab aggregators are looking to solve this problem and will be entering into a partnership with South Western Railway (Bengaluru Division), which has supposedly signed a contract for three years with both the ride-hailing services.
Following this agreement, Ola and Uber will set up booking counters in 12 railway stations in Bengaluru. These stations are: Bengaluru City, Yeshwanthpur, KR Puram, Cantonment, Kengeri, Banaswadi, Yelahanka, Bengaluru East, Baiyappanahalli, Whitefield, Malleswaram and Hebbal. At each of these stations, passengers leaving the station will be able to book a cab without using the applications on their phones.
Additionally, the contract also has terms which allow Ola and Uber to park a specific number of cabs at each station. The most popular stations i.e. City station, Yeshwanthpur, and Whitefield will have the most number of cars.
The deal is apparently worth Rs. 51 crore and is the first of its kind for the railways which usually earns revenue through train tickets. NR Sridhar Murthy, the senior divisional commercial management also said that this was the first instance of the railways earning this much from non-fare revenue.
This is a three-year-agreement. Each year, we earn Rs. 17 crore from this contract. The Ministry of Railways has appreciated this concept and is keen to introduce this in other divisions. This is being termed the Bengaluru model
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has set up a tender basis with both cab companies to set up counters at metro stations. However, BMRCL managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola has said that metro stations will not allot separate parking spaces for the cabs. Namma Metro is currently earning Rs. 5 crore from these operators.
Despite both companies suffering from the number of drivers declining, this initiative is expected to pull business for both Ola and Uber. Only recently, both companies have planned to set up booking kiosks at Chennai metro stations to help with connecting passengers at the end of their journey.
While Ola has confirmed the latest development with the South Western Railway, Uber has not responded yet.
