Meru Cabs' taxi service in Hyd likely from October 23

Meru Cabs, which is into organised cab service, would now roll out its maiden economy class taxi service in Hyderabad on October 23.

Meru was expected to roll out the new service by early September, but a senior company official said the delay was due to some pending regulatory approvals from the state transport authority and its internal considerations on product offering.  

The service would be priced 25-30 per cent below Meru's existing radio cab fare, which at present is Rs 18 per km tariff. “The company would deploy 100-200 hatchbacks initially, including Etios Liva or Indica Vista,” said Naga Kishore, regional head, Meru Cabs.

Depending upon the   response and service levels, more fleet would be added across various phases. According to Kishore, under “Phase-I (around 6 months) it would aim at adding more than 300 of these hatchbacks.”  

Meru expects to ferry 500,000 passengers in this phase. Taking a cue from the operational experience gained from here, it would consider expanding to cities pan India.

The operational model would be similar to the existing driver-owned, driver-run and also owned by the company. With respect to working model, Kishore said it would be “technology-driven” and added this was being “introduced for the first time in the country.”

He said the state had considered to hike the cab fare and expected it to rise by at least 16 per cent for it. However, the official announcement was awaited on this.