Meru Cabs in top gear, plans overseas foray by end-2011

Mumbai, Feb 20 (PTI) Having achieved a close to 50 percent market share in the Indian market, radio cab serviceprovider Meru Cabs plans to venture overseas by end-this year.

"We have about a 50 per cent share in the domesticmarket. We think this is the right time to enter the globalmarket," Meru Cabs Chief Executive Rajesh Puri told PTI here.

"We are in talks with the Governments of three-fourcountries and plan to start our operations by end-2011."

Puri, however, did not identify the markets thecompany planned to enter.

The country''s largest radio cab service provider wantsto ramp-up its operations by adding 2,000 cars and hiring anequal number of drivers by end-2011 to meet consumer demand.

"We plan to add 2,000 cabs at an investment of aroundRs 200 crore by December 2011 to cater to customer demand,"he said, adding the company also plans to recruit an equalnumber of drivers by the year-end.

Currently, Meru has 5,300 cars and 5,000 drivers pan-India. It receives around 5,000 requests for cab bookings on asingle day across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

"We receive around 15 lakh requests every month," Purisaid, adding "during peak hours, the company finds itselfrejecting nearly 40 per cent requests."

Puri said Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), whichoffers mobile phone services under the MTS brand, haspartnered with Meru to offer free Internet services to itspassengers in New Delhi and Mumbai.

"The company is likely to soon launch similar servicesin other major towns as well," he said.