Hi All,

Most of you reading this blog know me. For the others: I am a Tam, and am staying in Bangalore for some 4 years now. I've made a lot of Kannadiga friends, and have also started to talk broken Kannada (friends often get pissed off by the way I speak Kannada, but nevertheless, I keep trying)

I've now become such a close part of Bangalore, that I have started to dream ways of making my city sweeter. Still, I confess, I do not have the guts to go out and publicly profess my ideas... I feel that I am too small for Lead India!

What are the pain points of Bangalore? There are quite a few. For me, it looks like transport... The moment we think of public transportation, we get mixed reactions from Bangaloreans. Volvos are commendable, sure. Err... Did I hear anyone shouting Auto? We can comfortably say 90% of people who have commuted in Autorickshaws have got grudges and complaints. Call Taxis are good, but still, they are far from being organized.

This reminds me of what my sister says about Singapore. I've never visited any place outside India, so I do not have any ways to ascertain these: In Singapore, they have a simple card system, using which you can use any of the public commuting system, like Cabs, Trains Buses etc. With this in mind, what if we have a model like this:

Project Eco Cabs - Highlights

A fleet of 10 Reva Cars and 10 Tata Nanos (Gas Fitted) This will be called the Green Fleet of Eco Cabs. We will have a website for booking cabs. To start with the service will be from and to limited locations, and soon will be expanded This site will also allow the user to opt for car pooling and its preferences - This idea is copied from already existing car pooling sites Users will be encouraged to buy priviledge swipe cards that can be recharged on regular basis. Inside the car: the vehicle will be equiped with a special meter... this will take inputs like Payment Mode, A/C Preference etc. Based on selections, fare will be altered. For payment through cash, there will be a premium. Users paying through their Premium Eco Cabs card will get lesser fares. Car Poolers will get incentives. Facility will be provided to pay through Credit and Debit Cards too. The cab drivers will be neatly dressed in sleek looking uniforms and will carry ID Cards. The pride of Bangalore is the multi-lingual capabilities of its citizens. We'll also hire cabbies who can speak English and Hindi apart from Kannada. Passengers travelling using Priviledge Cards and / or travelling based on online booking will get special benefits. Further, whenever they avail of the service, the website will maintain a log of cab in which travel is being done. This will help tracking and ensure safety of passengers. This service can be provided at a fare level above call taxis and I bet the Bangalorean citizens will still love utilizing this service.

Now, I've done with jotting down my dream. I know that this project will need a loooot of planning and care to details. I also know that even if I want to take it forward, I will not have the financial teeth to do so. So, if any broad minded individual wants to take up this commercially viable project, well, please go ahead! I will not claim any rights of ideas!!! Instead, I promise to provide all kinds of help you would require from me.

You are also welcome to revert back with other "Pain Points" of bangalore. We can jointly dream of possible ways of solving them.

At this point, I would like to point to one of Shiv Khera's book "Freedom is Not Free". In this book at one of the places, he has spoken about an incident that happened in Singapore: He takes a cab to go to a location. The cabbie does not know the last lane so he goes around, and somehow manages to take him to the right doors. Now the meter shows $11. When he gives the money, the cabbie returns a dollar back and says, it was his mistake due to which the extra $1 came, so it need not be paid. Shiv simply puts that the Cabbies are the "diplomat of the state", or representatives of the state to the outsider. An outsider gets the impression of a state only by people like the cabbie. So, a person like a cabbie must take pride of what he is worth in giving pride to country and not advantage of what his "customer" is worth being sucked off from.

This idea, I bet, will suit not only Bangalore, but any other city with decently large population utilizing public transport means. Thanks for patient reading. Looking forward to hear from you.

Regards,

SKB.

skbpillai.blogspot.com