Meru Cabs rolled into the city on Wednesday with a fleet of 100, offering a hybrid between a rental car and the traditional taxi service.

The MeruFlexi service, at a competitive rate of Rs 20 a km, will allow a commuter to hire a cab for a point-to-point trip and retain the cab for a full day, multi-stop intercity or intra-city journey paying only for the period of use plus a waiting charge of Rs 2 a minute.

Meru, popular in Delhi and Mumbai, has offered in Calcutta a promotional “happy hour” discount of Rs 100 on the fare between 9am and 4pm for its MeruFlexi service.

The Meru launch follows two other app and call-based services — Uber and Bookmycab — in about a month, giving commuters more flexibility of choice along with Mega Cabs that has been operating in the city since September 2009.

In fact, Meru began operations on a day the city’s yellow taxi fleet was off the roads following a call for a rally from College Square to Esplanade by CPM trade union wing Citu.

With a punchline that says “book a cab in less than 60 seconds”, the service offers three options for bookings: call 033-33993399, log into www.merucabs.com or download and use the Meru Mobile App on a smartphone.

One can hail a Meru cab on the road, provided it has not been booked already.

A passenger can opt to pay through credit card via the Meru app or by cash and get an automated e-bill at the end of the trip. The trip tracker service allows people to travel in safety. One press of the ICE (in case of emergency) button on the app alerts the call centre and the family and friends of the passenger in 30 seconds.

“The app enables us to track how many cars are available at a given point of time in a given geographical area. This helps us allocate cars to our customers whenever we receive a booking,” said Rathin Lahiri, chief marketing officer, Meru Cabs.

During peak hours, there is “10 per cent refusal” because of the unavailability of vehicles.

Calcutta is Meru’s 11th stop after operating for seven years in the Indian market and garnering a market share of 50 per cent in every city that it operates in.

Siddhartha Pahwa, the CEO of Meru Cabs, said: “Calcutta will be the largest city in our portfolio. We have had 10 to 15 requests every week to launch here. We arrived once we created the system that is at once beneficial to our customers as well as our drivers. We aim to increase our fleet 10 times, that is 1,000 cars on Calcutta roads, within nine to 12 months.”

Meru operates a fleet of over 10,000 cabs in the country, making 35,000 trips a day. In Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, it owns 30 per cent of its fleet but it is hiring cars with commercial permit for its Calcutta operation.

“We would like to have chauffeurs as our business partners and offer a lot of incentives, like easy car finance and accident insurance, enabling them to own their cars. We also train them intensively at the Meru Training Academy and every vehicle is equipped with a smartphone that displays the fare,” said Pahwa.

Meru has logged a compound annual growth rate of 35 per cent in the $13 billion Indian taxi industry that boasts a fleet of 1.6 million taxis (according to data from state transport authorities).

“We are currently growing at a rate faster than that,” said Pahwa, explaining the reason behind back-to-back launches in Chennai and Calcutta.

The private cab company’s target is to spread its presence to 20-25 cities across the country and have 100,000 cabs on the road in five to seven years.

To book a Meru: Call 033-33993399, log into www.merucabs.com or download Meru Mobile App Fare: MeruFlexi at Rs 20 a km. Rs 100 discount between 9am and 4pm Payment: Cash and card