Ola to add 2,000 CNG cabs every month in Delhi NCR

Taxi aggregator Ola today said it is planning to add 2,000 vehicles to its fleet every month in Delhi NCR, which will help reduce arrival time and ensure higher availability of cabs when the government runs odd-even system again.

“We are trying to start odd and even system again and during these days a good cab service is required as an option in which they can feel safe. As per Supreme Court order, all cabs plying in Delhi will have to adopt CNG. This is the way Ola is doing it,” Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra said at Ola event where the company shared its business roadmap.

The second phase of the odd-even vehicle rationing scheme will be implemented in the city from April 15 to 30. Mishra flagged off initial taxi of Ola driver partners who have adopted CNG during 5-day Ola Pragati Mahotsav.

“Total fleet of CNG cars in Ola now stands over 26,000 in Delhi NCR. Ola aims to build up its CNG fleet further by targeting addition of over 2,000 cars across Micro, Mini and Prime month after month, to ensure availability at all times and low ETAs (expected time of arrivals) across Delhi NCR,” Ola Senior Director for Marketing Communications Anand Subramanian said.

The company added 6,000 new CNG vehicles under its Pragati Mahotsav camp. In the five-day Pragati Mahotsav camp which ended on March 22, Ola offered its driver partners offering a benefit of up to Rs 1,50,000 on exchange of diesel vehicles and paying first two EMIs for those who go for new CNG vehicles.

For this camp, Ola has partnered with dealers of leading car manufacturers including Hyundai, Tata Nissan, Chevrolet, Fiat and Maruti amongst others.

“We will invest Rs 200 crore in six months to encourage Ola drivers to adopt CNG as well as on research and development of green fuel technology, leasing of CNG cars in Delhi NCR,” Subramanian said.

He said that all Ola cabs in Delhi run on CNG fuel and by March 31 all cabs on Ola network in Delhi NCR will use CNG. Using the Ola mobile app, users across 102 cities can book cabs, auto-rickshaws and taxis.

When asked about pan-India CNG adoption, Subramanian said that company will adopt CNG based on infrastructure support like availability of CNG fuel station.

Ola in September announced to invest Rs 5,000 crore to add 1 lakh cabs in its service by 2016 that it will lease out to drivers. “We will focus to include more of CNG cabs wherever possible under this scheme,” Subramanian said.