Why Uber is bullish on carpooling, ride-sharing for Indian roads
Getting "more people into fewer cars" has the potential to cut congestion and, therefore, pollution in urban cities. In India, carpooling and ride-sharing can actually improve urban mobility and global online cab-hailing app Uber has hit the ground running on this count. For a country that considers car ownership as a status symbol, it has been interesting to note that people are finally adapting to the idea of sharing rides. The San Francisco-headquartered firm launched UberPOOL -- a service that enables people going the same way at the same time to share their journey -- in Bengaluru in September 2015. Thereafter, it was introduced in Delhi in December 2015, followed by Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and, more recently, in Chennai. "The response we have got on UberPOOL has been phenomenal so far and is fastemerging as the most preferred mode of transport for riders in India. More than 31 per cent of rides in Delhi are on UberPOOL and over 20 per cent of the UberPOOL rides are in the remaining five cities -- Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai," Apurva Dalal, Head of Engineering, Uber India , told IANS. "Since the launch of UberPOOL in the country, the company has partnered with citizens in saving over 32 million km of vehicle-travel, over 1.5 million litres of fuel, reducing CO2 emissions worth 3.5 million kg," Dalal claimed. UberCOMMUTE -- the ride-sharing feature for those who embark on long rides on a daily basis to share journey with a fellow commuter headed in the same direction and recoup the costs -- is also picking up. "If we aspire for every journey in India to be a shared journey, we need to use private cars for the public good. How do we encourage people who own a car to carpool