Yup, you heard it right. Similar to what you might have seen in foreign countries, Indian metro cities will also have ‘dial-a-cab’. Just dial one number and a Cab(which is actually a Taxi) will reach your place for pickup.
Sounds wonderful. !!
Most of Delhi’tes have heard about radio cabs an always-connected network of air -conditioned cabs Delhi has three radio cab players currently Mega Cabs, Dial-a-cab and Metro Cabs all running on CNG. A fourth player Easycabs is set to enter the market soon.
The largest player Megacabs is increasing its fleet by more than four times to 280 by the end of September, at an investment of Rs 11 crore. This is good news for the consumer, whose average waiting time for the call-cab will come down to 15 minutes from about half an hour now - Kunal Lalani, MD, Mega Cabs.
All new cars will have two-way connectivity with the main control room and will also be constantly tracked via satellite (using GPS and GPRS). Dial-a-cab, which is doubling its fleet to 50 cars by the year-end, is also opting for similar technology.
Easycabs is planning to launch its service in Delhi with an initial fleet of 500 mid-sized cars (all on CNG) in October. The company is looking at a six-fold increase in fleet, to about 3,000, in three years. It is also planning to start service in Mumbai soon, where taxi use is much more common than in Delhi.
Mega Cabs has planned a Mumbai launch in October, with 200 cars. The plan is to provide extensive coverage in pockets of the large city, until the fleet size increases to 1,000 cars, a target set for October 2007.
There is a latent demand for such services in cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad too. They are currently serviced by cabs mostly non-air-conditioned Maruti Omni’s that use walkie-talkies to communicate with their bases.By the end of 2007, Mega Cabs should also be seen in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Lalani is targetting at least 2,500 vehicles across India by December 2007.
Some of the information I found about this Cabs from their websites/google are:
- To book the MegaCabs services, just dial 1929 (no prefix) from within Delhi. You can also call +91 11 29232425 if you are calling from outside Delhi, India.
- Dial-a-Cab/Car Helpline : 1920; 1922;1923
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