Cab hailing service companies can now breathe a sigh of relief. After the essential and non-essential product delivery, cabs can now resume operations in Green and Orange zones as mandated by the federal government in India. However, they will continue to remain non-operational in the red zone.
According to the latest guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Ola, Uber, Meru or any other ride-hailing services can pick only one passenger. In emergency cases, if two people need to commute then, they need to sit by the windows and maintain social distancing even in the cab. However, car pooling and or share ride has been prohibited.
Some quick Dos and Don’ts by Ola and Uber for passengers
Regarding their driver, the cab companies will ensure that all driver-partners will be given masks, sanitizers and disinfectants. Drivers will have to wear the masks at all times, clean their cabs before and after every ride. Either the passengers or driver-partner will have the option to cancel a ride if either of the parties is not following safety rules. Drivers will not participate in the loading and unload luggage and must be done by the passengers themselves in order to maintain social distancing.
Ever since the announcement for the first lockdown in March, cab services have been temporarily suspended. However, in the last few weeks, they tied up e-commerce sites like Flipart, Amazon and government agencies to double up as essential services providers. So far, there is no confirmation on when Uber and Ola will resume service in the Red zone or if it is even advisable.
The districts of the country have been divided into three zones: Green, Orange, and Red depending on the number of cases identified in every district.
*Green zones include Cuttack, Jamshedpur, Daman, Silvassa, Kochi and Guwahati. Orange zone includes Amritsar, Hubli, Panchkula, Udaipur, Asansol, Vapi, Dehradun, Mangalore, Rajkot Rohtak, Gurgaon and so on.
*Red zones include Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Ahmedabad.
