PUNE: Carmaker Ford India’s smart mobility arm has introduced its shared mobility solution in the city in partnership with the Hinjewadi IT Association (HIA).
The app-based bus service called “office ride” will operate within the Metrozip facility offered by the HIA. This takes the total number of minibuses offered by Metrozip to 100.
Ford said it had drawn from its success in Chennai, where its fleet has now grown to over 450 vehicles in under nine months after introduction. In Chennai, it offers minibuses, shuttles and cars for the last mile connectivity.
Mahadevan Ramamurthy, country director, Ford Smart Mobility India Private Limited, said the focus in the initial stages would be to connect the “major miles” and follow it up with the last mile.
The buses will cater to about two dozen destinations across eight routes to begin with and offer Wi-Fi to commuters. People can pre-book rides on a daily, monthly or even on a longer-term basis. As a differentiator from cab-aggregators, Mahadevan said there would be no surge pricing, no cancellations and people would be moving in buses.
“As we learn and gather more data, we will see what best we can bring in terms of different types of vehicles… We are open to all models,” he said, adding that the service was a part of the memorandum of understanding signed with the Maharashtra government and Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited.
Siddhartha Dhende, the deputy mayor of Pune Municipal Corporation, said, “People will have to embrace the concept of shared mobility and multi-modal transport. They have to change their habit of going end-to-end on their personal vehicles,”
The city’s top transport officer Babasaheb Ajri said daily over 1,000 vehicles were registered in the city on an average.