| Mumbai’s citizens will soon be India’s first commuter group to shift gears from whining about traffic and pollution to driving a sensible eco-friendly campaign. |
| India first organized carpooling — Koolpool — which worked out an indigenously designed system to reduce traffic congestion was launched in the sprawling metropolis of Mumbai on November 16, 2006. |
| With nearly 30,000 cars being added on to Mumbai roads that maintained a constant road length at around 2,000 kilometres spurred Joshua D’Souza to ponder over a concept to ease out traffic. |
| Koolpool, a brainchild of Joshua D’Souza, that started as an idea and got materialized after he met Ashok Datar, an experienced Transport specialist and Chetan Temkar – global entrepreneur. |
| Temkar’s company provided the needed incubation resources for the project and it evolved from an idea to practicality. The concept has the potential to not only save money, time and effort for commuters but also fits into the global initiative to reduce CO2 emissions. |
| The initiative helps reduce air pollution, improve health conditions and drastically lower reduce fuel bills. |
| Koolpool uses the ubiquitous SMS to match people travelling in the same direction and wanting to pool. The service will cater to office goers who have offices in Bandra-Kurla Complex, Andheri (E) and Nariman Point, especially as traffic is high en route to these areas between 8 am to 11 am, and 5 pm to 9pm. |
| Traffic jams, according to Koolpool, are caused mainly as the number of vehicles has grown exponentially. “We conducted a survey and found that the average vehicle occupancy of private vehicles was not even two people per car. A lot of people are just sitting in their cars and taking 30-45 minutes extra to reach their destinations,” says Temkar. |
| “If even five per cent of the entire population of Mumbai leaves their cars behind and shares it with someone, the problem of traffic snarls can be easily solved,” added Temkar. |
| “One can join Koolpool by enrolling with a nominal membership fee of Rs 350 per year. Our target is to cut down 50,000 million kilometers of travel in a year,” says D’Souza. |
| Jyoti Kalra, project co-ordinator says, “Presently, we are focussing on corporate firms and are not accepting all entries. Firms like Johnson & Johnson, J P Morgan, Lintas and ICICI have shown an interest in the project. We have received nearly 250 entries till now.”
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| Each entry will be thoroughly scrutinised on the basis before a candidate is enrolled into the system, added Kalra.
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