The two bike taxi services operating in New Town have started plying in Salt Lake and Sector V. Bikes can now be booked over mobile phone apps or phone to give you a lift anywhere in Salt Lake, Sector V, New Town or within 5km of their boundaries.

K Bike Taxi was the first of its kind in the city, launched on March 16, and One Man Taxi followed soon after but they were initially restricted to plying in New Town. But both had applied for permission to extend their jurisdiction and having received permission from the state transport department, started plying in Salt Lake from June 6. 

“New Town primarily has an office crowd so while all our rides would be booked on weekdays, weekends would be dull,” says Raghav Randar, founder of One Man Taxi. “In fact we had shut our operations on Sunday as it only meant burning petrol and paying our riders without any income.”

The first week of operations in Salt Lake has been quite successful and Imran Mustafa, co-founder-director of K Bike Taxi, says they have already ordered 25 more bikes to cater to the extended market. They will then have around 60 bikes. “Salt Lake has a last mile connectivity problem. No autos, for instance, go to the swimming pool, which is a huge street food destination. Autos don’t enter any lanes but our bikes do,” says Mustafa. 

Randar is optimistic about Sector V too. “Sector V employees commute by bus because it’s the only practical option available. But most of them earn more than Rs 30,000 and though they may not be able to afford app caps daily, they can easily afford bike taxis,” says Randar. 

The first kilometre on bike taxis costs Rs 20 and every kilometre thereafter costs Rs 5. The bikes can now drop passengers up to Science City, Bidhannagar railway station in Ultadanga, Lake Town-Bangur and the airport.