Kejriwal's odd-even rule to benefit bus aggregation startups

In a bid to control the alarming levels of Delhi’s air pollution, CM Arvind Kejriwal has planned to allow private vehicles with even and odd registration numbers on alternate days from January 1 next year. This step, however odd it may sound, can get really beneficial for bus aggregation startups like Shuttl and ZipGo, who can jump on the opportunity to offer their services to more people now.

Shuttl, which is the largest bus aggregation players in the Delhi-NCR has around 500 vehicles on its network. ZipGo too has entered the Delhi market, and has plans to launch women-only buses.

3 million people already use metro every day to commute, while for buses this number is 5 million. With 50% of Delhi’s private vehicles taken off road, the public transport needs to be made more efficient.

Mumbai-based venture rBus is also evaluating a Delhi launch after the announcement, even as Kejriwal later confirmed that this step would be more of an experiment for the first two weeks of January, and results would determine the final step.

Big players like Ola and Uber would wait for the results before bouncing on the opportunity. "Delhi being one of our major cities and headquarter, we will be looking to bring UberPool there very soon," an Uber spokesperson told ET.

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