Carpooling in today's ToI

[Chandrasekaran Ganesh]

Carpool and save the city

With the hike in petrol prices and Bangalore's soaring pollution levels, sharing transport is the way to go, say leading corporates

NIRMALA GOVINDARAJAN

   INCHING home in barely moving traffic? Carbon emissions suffocating you? Everyone knows too many cars on the road is the cause of our daily commuting travails. But while several singleoccupant cars still ply on our roads, carpooling and using company transport is becoming an accepted way of commuting even for top management in many companies.
   Mohan Sitaram, associate director, people function in an IT services company, says the carpool he takes is a cerebral journey. "I carpool with a few colleagues and through the journey we have something stimulating to talk about. It's so enjoyable that I don't take calls during the commute,"  he says.
   Apart from saving petrol and money for him and the company, carpooling has brought in work-life balance, adds Sitaram. "Since we take others' timings into consideration, I get home earlier and spend more time with family," he says. Peter Yorke, VP marketing in an IT services company, vouches for the benefits of carpooling. "It's not just rising fuel costs, but the impact of pollution on the environment that prompts us to carpool. I do so with a colleague who lives close to my place," he says. Carpooling is the way to cut costs and curb pollution, says Ajay Kela, managing director and COO, global operations of an IT services company. "It's a criminal waste for one person to be driving a big fat car. Whenever we have workrelated meetings outside, we use a single car. We strongly encourage carpooling among employees and have introduced buses for them," he says.
   Arathi Vedantham, head corporate communications with a leading international portal, carpools with her colleagues between their three offices in the city. "We provide a carpool service to people staying in specific areas. As an organisation, we are environment-conscious and have launched green initiatives. Our US office gave away a fleet of hybrid cars to taxi drivers in New York, encouraging all of us to use electric vehicles," she says. Kela adds, "In an organisation like ours, we can facilitate carpools
   through HR by creating portals to identify people staying in particular areas and helping them co-ordinate pick-up and drop points and timings. This would help especially in the IT environment where work timings differ depending on international calls and conferences."
   Government intervention will go a long way in inducing people to carpool, explains Kela. "The US has introduced separate fast-moving lanes for those who carpool. The same should be done in India, especially on multi-lane roads."
   The idea of going green is gradually making inroads in the corporate sector thanks to increasing awareness. "We had an awareness programme for children of employees, after which my son uses a carpool. We've also started walking our daughter to school, which is nearby, instead of using the car," says Vedantham. "What's better than carpooling is to move over to the public transport system. Not using public transport was once a status issue, but now there are comfort able Volvo buses that do away with the stress of driving your own vehicle. It's better to have buses that can carry 50 people as compared to one car with four people. But the BMTC routes are not effective and services are unpredictable. The cost of creating a rapid transport system using buses would work out to just five per cent of the cost of the metro. Agreed, con scientious citizens are carpooling, but it's not enough. It needs to become a wave to make an impact." Kathyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee of CIVIC, a forum that drives urban civic issues