Uber expands to 7 more cities

Even as Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata made an investment in taxi aggregator Ola on Wednesday, its San Francisco-headquartered rival Uber, said it would launch operations in seven more cities in India on Thursday. Uber will now have presence in 18 Indian cities, making its operations in the country larger than in China and the UK and only behind the US in footprint.

The company will launch its services in Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Indore, Mysuru, Nagpur, Surat and Visakhapatnam.

Neeraj Singhal, Uber's head of expansion for India and the subcontinent, told Business Standard that the simultaneous launch in these cities would expand the firm's coverage to 22 million additional people. "The rapid 40 per cent month-on-month growth we continue to see in India is unprecedented." While he did not share specific numbers, Singhal said the expansion would add tens of thousands of drivers on its network. The firm, which employees around 100 people, will increase its headcount by two or three times to service the new centres.

Despite the latest expansion, the company might still be smaller than rival Ola, which acquired taxi aggregator TaxiForSure in March this year for $200 million and has operations in about 100 cities. Uber has had a rough ride in the country after a driver on its network raped a woman passenger here in December last year. After the incident, the company was banned from operating in Delhi. However, after adhering to the ban for a few months, Uber resumed its operations after applying for a licence under the amended radio taxi regulations of the Delhi government. Recently, the Delhi government rejected its application for licence; the company is in the process of moving a fresh application.

On being compliant with local rules and regulations, Singhal said the company had taken utmost care to ensure safety and security of its passengers.