Flash strike by e-cab drivers over poor facility

Nagpur: At least 20 electric battery-operated cab drivers of aggregator Ola on Thursday went on a flash strike in city alleging poor facilities. Though the

strike did not affect the commuters

, the drivers claimed that if their demands like more charging stations were not met, all drivers will stop plying the vehicles.

Drivers, requesting anonymity, told TOI that at the time of launching the battery

app-based cabs

as a pilot project in city, the

aggregator had made several promises

including charging stations at all corners in the city. But, currently, the city has only two charging points — at the airport and Samvidhan Square petrol pump.

“On many occasions, we could not operate continuously as batteries were getting discharged. Despite repeated requests to increase number of charging stations, nothing has been done,” said one of the drivers.

According to them, the cab aggregator had halved the monthly rental from Rs1,000 for non-availability of the required charging stations. “But it has again increased the rental to Rs1,000,” said a driver.

The drivers said that their daily expense will increase to Rs1700-Rs2000 as they have to bear the cost of charging (Rs350) and parking (Rs50). “The response of e-cab is not so good and increasing charges will increase our losses,” they claimed.

Saying there was “no strike”, city’s OLA officials refused to speak further.