State’s hired cars scheme gets overwhelming response

The initiative of the state Transport department to make self-driven hired cars available in the city has become immensely successful with all cars being booked within five days of its launch. The private company that was given permit to facilitate the service decided to add more cars to its fleet before the Puja. 

Suvendu Adhikari, the state Transport Minister, had inaugurated the service on October 28. Within the past few days, all the cars have been booked and curiosity among people about the service has gone up.

The service was launched with a fleet of 15 cars of different classes ranging from Etios to Innova. But with all the cars being booked from Shasthi onwards, the service provider has decided to add another 10 cars to their fleet.

Supratik Roy, general manager of Orix Auto Infrastructure Services Limited, said: “It is really encouraging to find that all cars have been booked ahead of the Puja and that too within five days of the launch. Thus, we have decided to add 10 more cars. The new cars will be Swift Dzire and Mahindra XUV.”

He said many people hire cars and drive on their own in hilly areas for adventure. “We have got enquiries for such cars. Thus it has been decided to introduce cars like Mahindra XUV. Moreover, more people can get accommodated in this class of cars,” he said.

There is demand for both small and big cars. Recently, a car has been booked by a person for 15 days. He has a plan to take 15 persons including his family members to Darjeeling and some other places in North Bengal. At the same time he wants to drive the car on his own in the hills.

Thus, it is soon going to pave way for a new arena of tourism in Bengal. Besides the residents of Bengal, many from cities like Delhi and Mumbai have called up to enquire about the facility here.

The service was well available in other metropolis. Thus, the people residing there are well aware of the process that needs to be followed to hire a car to drive on their own.

So, before visiting the state, the people from other metropolis enquired whether it would be possible to hire cars if they plan to go to Nepal and Bhutan after visiting attractive tourist spots in Bengal.

The facility had begun in the state with two senior officials of two other multi-national company booking cars to drive on their own. Later, people from different walks of life have enquired about the service and booked cars.

The service provider found that a large number of IT employees were showing interest in hiring the cars, thus they have also planned online based marketing to reach more people.

According to an official of the state Transport department, the process of booking has been kept simple.

One just needs to log in to their website and subsequently follow the instruction to upload the photocopy of his or her passport and a photo identity card.