Ola partners with BMC, to provide dedicated fleet to ferry frontline workers

For a place like Mumbai, people are mostly dependent on public transport to ferry them from one place to another. Before this pandemic, there has been not a single incident where the local transport including the trains had to be shut down. However, these are unprecedented times.

With no local trains and only BEST buses, the movement of people engaged in emergency services were also getting impacted. However, that is now going to end soon as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced that it has partnered with Ola and they will be supporting mobility of people engaged in essential sectors during COVID-19. Ola has provided a dedicated fleet of cars to BMC, and these will be deployed to transport doctors, medical staff, healthcare workers and paramedical staff and BMC officials from their homes to hospitals in Mumbai.

Health Minister Rajesh Tope talking about this partnership said, “We are happy to partner with Ola and help ferry doctors, health-care workers and hundreds of frontline workers to help them perform their essential duties. We look forward to working with Ola to find more ways of helping Mumbaikars in our fight against COVID-19 in the true spirit of the city.”

Anand Subramanian, Spokesperson and Head of Communications, Ola, also commented on this as he said, “We stand committed to our resolve of ensuring help to as many people during these turbulent times. This partnership will play an essential role in transporting COVID warriors like frontline and healthcare workers who are helping us in these crucial and testing times. We are thankful to BMC for the opportunity and will continue to work with them to enable essential mobility in Mumbai.”

While we do applaud this gesture by Ola, we also hope that all doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and these drivers will follow all the norms about hygiene as laid out. We also urge BMC and Ola to provide them with masks and other equipment that will help them remain safe during this time and also ensure that these drivers are tested regularly to avoid spread of the infection.