Kolkata fastest growing market after US for Uber: official

Kolkata has become the fastest growing market for taxi-hailing service Uber, after the US, a top official of the company said today.
"Kolkata is the fastest market for us globally after America. The volume of business growth is unprecedented for us. It is the most important market for us," Neeraj Singhal, Head of Expansion (India) at Uber, told reporters here.
He said their business in terms of the number of trips has been growing at a phenomenal rate ever since the service was launched here in last September.
"This means the Kolkata market is growing faster than even London," he said, adding, while the India market for Uber has been growing by over 40 per cent, the Kolkata market has been doing better than the national average.

Mumbai comes second out of the 11 cities in the country in which the company is operating.
Founded in 2009, the San Francisco-based taxi aggregator operates in over 200 cities across the globe.

When asked, Singhal said the limited transportation infrastructure in Kolkata has been a boon for them.
"The existing transportation infrastructure in the city is not satisfactory and has provided us with a big opportunity in the market," he said.
The official, however, refused to share any figure on the number of cabs they have tied up with in the city.
Providing an app-based taxi service, Uber doesn't own any cars nor employs drivers.

"We are not radio taxi. We only provide a free market for entrepreneurs using a technology platform," Singhal said.
According to him, the average waiting time to get a cab is six minutes in Kolkata.
The company is also looking at expanding its services in nearby areas of Kolkata and other cities of West Bengal.
"We are also providing tens of thousands of jobs to entrepreneurs in Kolkata through our model," Singhal said.