Bengaluru ahead of Mumbai, Chennai in carpooling

Ola, Uber vie to dominate ride-sharing sector

Bengaluru has surpassed Mumbai and Chennai when it comes to ridesharing on Ola and Uber.

Uber and Ola, which account for almost all the app-based cab services in Bengaluru, said carpooling has seen tremendous growth over the last one year. Uber said shared rides accounted for 30% of the total trips. In Bengaluru, which was the first city to get the UberPool feature, ride-sharing jumped to 20% in July 2016 to 30% last month, it said. Ola didn't reveal the share of pooled rides but claimed an overall growth of 500% in shared rides in the last one year.

“Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata have emerged as the top cities for Ola Share,” a spokesman for Ola said.

Ola Share was expanded from seven to 26 cities within two years while Uber has steadily taken the service to 29 cities over the past few months.

An Uber spokesperson said East and South Bengaluru contribute the most when it comes to ride-sharing. “In the city, BTM Circle is the top hotspot for ridesharing followed by Graphite India, Silk Board area and ITPL. We expect more people to join the pool in the coming days,” the spokesperson added.

Though the companies refused to give the number of rides, industry experts have opined that both companies are close and are vying to dominate ridesharing, which is expected to play a major role in the sector in the coming days.

Ola has been offering Share Pass, which allows a rider to buy a ‘pass’ to ride the next several rides at a flat fare. Uber has introduced flat fares of Rs 29 for 4 km and Rs 49 for 8 km.

The Transport Department in Karnataka, which termed ride-sharing illegal, relented later after it was pointed out that both the state government and Centre have been encouraging carpooling. However, the department is yet to come up with guidelines to enhance passenger safety.