Tag: Gurgaon

An Aerial Snap Of Gurugram’s Bus Depot And Metro Depot

Continuing to provide you all with amazing aerial photographs of bus depots, here is a drone photograph, but this time from a different city.

Older readers of BESTpedia might remember that in 2015, when I was undergoing an internship in Gurgaon (now called Gurugram) I had written about ways to get around the city. (Read: Getting around Gurgaon)

In the older post, I had mentioned about buses operated by the Haryana Roadways. In the five years that have elapsed since my short, yet memorable stay in the Millienium City, also erroneously referred to as Cyber City, a lot has changed. For starters, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA)– since renamed to Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) – no longer has jurisdiction over the city and handles the rest of the state while Gurgaon now comes under the aegis of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and Faridabad comes under the Faridabad MDA (FMDA).

Further, intra-city buses in Gurgaon are no longer handled by Haryana Roadways but by a new agency – the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) that is a joint venture between the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, GMDA and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (HSIICL). In 2019, owing to the financial troubles that Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) was facing, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took over Rapid Metro operations as well.

Here is what a GMCBL bus looks like.

Gurugram City Bus (Image Credits: GMCBL/Facebook)
Gurugram City Bus (Image Credits: GMCBL/Facebook)

Now, coming to the aerial view that I was talking about. Gurgaon is among the rare cities in India which has a Metro Depot adjacent to a Bus Depot.

The 11.7km-long RMRG line features two depots, a small one that is located adjacent to the Cybercity Phase 3 Station which is the first elevated metro depot in the country. This was opened along with the first phase of the line in 2013. Here is an aerial view of this from 2016.

The second depot which is much larger, meanwhile is located at the other end of the line, near the Sector 55-56 station. It is this depot that is located adjacent to GMCBL’s bus depot. And here is it’s picture. You’ll have to click on the image to view it.

Shot during the ongoing lockdown using a drone by Gunj Guglani, this was shared recently by TheMetroRailGuy (TMRG) who runs a fantabulous website documenting India’s metro rail. Do check it out here: themetrorailguy.com.

A double bonanza featuring both a bus depot and a metro depot!

That’s all for me for the time being. Remember, share this post, and if you can, do back me up on Patreon. Times are hard and us Bloggers are among the worst affected.

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Featured Image: Gurugram City Bus (Picture Credits: GMCBL/Twitter)

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Motorcycle Taxis: Zooming Past Traffic

Motorcycle taxis in India have been in existence since the 1980s.

Founded in 1980, The Goa Motorcycle Taxi Riders Association (GMTRA) was set up to operate two-wheeler taxis in the state. The following year, the Government of Goa began issuing licences to riders, known as Pilots. They use Yellow-coloured motorcycles and have fixed rates.

Pilots waiting to pick up passengers at a Motor Cycle Taxi Stand in Vasco da Gama, Goa.
Pilots waiting to pick up passengers at a Motor Cycle Taxi Stand in Vasco da Gama, Goa. Image copyright AaronC, CC-BY-SA 2.0 Generic, available on the Wikimedia Commons/Flickr.

In June 2015, a company called HeyTaxi started two-wheeler taxi services in Mumbai. Taxis could be booked using an app. A few months later, a Bangalore based startup called HeyBob began offering the same services. Here too, taxis were to be booked with an app.

What happened next?

The Regional Transport Authority [RTA] in both states began preparing various guidelines and regulations for bike taxis. That is, until Maharashtra’s Transport Minister Diwakar Raote decided that “Such taxis are extremely unsafe and should not be allowed” and rejected the proposal of the RTA to permit them with a fixed colour-code and fare slab on the lines of existing autos and taxis in the city.  Karnataka meanwhile said that the Transport Department could issue such permits, but the State Government would have to notify guidelines for their operations. In spite of this inanity, both HeyTaxi and HeyBob continue to operate today.

Bike Taxi Stand at HUDA City Centre.
Bike Taxi Stand at HUDA City Centre, Gurgaon. Image copyright Srikanth Ramakrishnan, CC-BY-SA 4.0 International, available on the Wikimedia Commons.

In late 2015, two companies Baxi and m-Taxi started offering Bike Taxi services in Haryana’s commercial capital of Gurgaon. With inadequate public transit in Gurgaon, they were quite successful. Taxis can be booked using an app, or hailed from a taxi stand like the picture above. Both companies had the necessary permits from the Haryana government and were looking to expand services into neighbouring Delhi.

Now, in a significant move that will boost the Motorcycle Taxi industry in India, Uber announced the launch of UberMoto, a move that was emulated by its local rival OlaCabs within hours as Ola Bikes. Both services are confined to Bengaluru as of now. Both have a minimum fare of ₹15, with Uber charging ₹3/km and Ola charging ₹2/km thereafter.

Given the massive userbase that Ola and Uber enjoy, this is going to be a big advantage to the entire industry. The advantage Ola and Uber will enjoy is that existing customers merely have to update the app. However, existing service providers have experience in dealing with the industry and traffic, and as existing entities, can also slash prices to compete with the two giants. HeyTaxi also allows people to send shipments across Mumbai using its fleet.

It remains to be seen how this will affect streets. Hopefully, it will help rationalise and streamline traffic, rather than mess things up more.

We look forward to women driving Motorcycle taxis in India.

UberMoto and OlaBikes have arrived. What next? Share on X

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