HYDERABAD: The nascent sector of ‘shuttle services’ in Hyderabad has come like a breather for techies in the IT sector.
Presently, there are close to five shuttle services. Many people are availing shuttle services for their to and fro journey, from the IT hub to various isolated parts of the city and vice versa.
For instance, Sindhu, a techie in Hyderabad used to travel 46 kms to and fro through the busy route of Safilguda to Raheja Mind Space in Hit-Tech City of Madhapur everyday on her two-wheeler. However, now, she relies on the shuttle services to reach her office.
“Coming to my office on my bike from my house located at Safilguda was a real pain. I was unable to concentrate on my work after reaching office. But now, with these services, I feel I am not just helping myself by straining less but also being socially conscious in reducing vehicular movement and pollution,” Sindhu said.
“The ride is now a peaceful journey. I doze off as soon as I board the shuttle and I get three hours of rest from my tiring office hours,” said Anish Barua, another software professional, who uses shuttle services. “The low TSRTC bus frequency from various parts of the city to Hi-Tech city has now been bridged,” Barua added.
Safety, personal information at stake?
While the services are priced competitively, there is always a sense of apprehension associated with it especially regarding safety and misuse of information.
“Since these services are relatively new in the city, there are always possibilities of personal information being misused and as a rider, I do not know if the company takes efforts in protecting our data,” said Lokander Jain, a techie.
Though uncertainty exists, the sector will see a huge market in in coming days. “There are about 65 per cent of women who travel through our shuttles and that speaks for itself. We conduct a lot of background checks for our drivers,” said Prasanth Garapati, founder of Commut, a shuttle service provider in city.