KOLKATA: Some of the biggest IT firms working out of Kolkata, fed up with their employees’ commuting woes, are now trying to take a leaf out of Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy — “Of the people, by the people, for the people” — and encouraging staffers to get onto a ride-sharing app that can bring down travel cost to 20% of what the big app-cab platforms charge.This is how it works. Mr A works with an IT company in Rajarhat. He gets onto the app, keys in his journey details and then waits for responses. Ms B works in another IT firm, whose offices lies on A’s route. She is already using the app and notices that there is a car heading in the direction of her workplace. She taps in, accepts the price that flashes on her mobile screen and then waits for the car. Ms C and Mr D join in and the four travel together — in a car that A would have driven alone to work — to their offices. A recovers the cost of his journey and B, C and D each pay only about Rs 5 per kilometre.Souvik Chowdhury, a resident of Haridevpur, used to spend over two hours shuttling between auto, Metro, bus and rickshaw or spend a lump sum in an app cab. A senior software engineer with Capgemini, he dreaded taking a shared app cab as he never knew which route it would follow, and eventually turn up late for office.Then, since last year, he started using the carpooling app sRide and life has been a lot more systematic since then. “I tried the app after getting a formal email from my company about the app. Since then, I have been using it to go to office and back, daily. My travel time has reduced to less than an hour, and without much hassle,” he said. While for Chowdhury, time-saving was the biggest challenge, for senior telecom manager Meghmallar Das, money was an equally important concern, along with the commute time. “Even if I took a shared app cab, every day I was spending something around Rs 250 for a one-way ride to office and that too, it was taking around three hours. But now, I pay something around Rs 80 for a single journey and reach office within one-and-a-half hours, taking the shortest possible routes,” said Das, a resident of Unique Park in Behala. His wife, who works for Wipro, also uses the carpooling regularly.Capgemini senior director Abhijit Dutta is another ride-giver who offers rides to people and colleagues, often several ranks lower than him, between his home near New Town bus stand and office at Unitech. “I love the concept. There is no senior or junior concept during the ride. Further, there are some people in my complex who work at the same office and they can all come to office with me,” he said.Several top-tier IT firms in Kolkata like Cognizant, TCS and Accenture are encouraging their employees to use this shared carpool app.Authorities from the app, sRide, remained unavailable for comment to an email questionnaire.A centre head of one of these firms said: “From an organisation perspective, we encourage this alternative method of commuting, which helps forge social bonding among employees. By pooling, they also reduce the number of vehicles, and therefore the carbon footprint.”Senior manager with Cognizant Bijan Das and his wife Rakhi are “ride givers” in carpooling. Das has been regularly offering rides to around three colleagues or employees from different companies every day on his way to work and back from office for the last three months. Das’ ride starts from Diamond City North in Nagerbazar, about 13km from his office in Unitech New Town.“The ride sharing not only recovers my petrol cost, it makes me happy that I have been helping a bunch of co-riders, who otherwise would have had to take public transport. I also feel responsible towards the environment, as carpooling reduces the carbon footprint,” Das said.Carpooling has been popular in many western countries in the past several decades, but the idea is catching up in India of late. The benefits are manifold: those without a car can travel to their destinations at a low cost and much earlier time by navigating through city traffic taking the shortest possible route, and car owners can recover the cost of fuel. Further, carpooling also help reduce the total number of cars on the street during peak office hours.

Stay updated with all the Kolkata Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.