Visakhapatnam: Ola resumes services in port city

Visakhapatnam: With Visakhapatnam being declared as Orange Zone, Ola, a cab aggregator, announced that its operations will resume in the city with '10 steps to a safer ride,' a new safety initiative.

The move is in line with the company's announcement to recommence services in over 100 Indian cities which have been identified as Orange or Green Zones by the government.

Ola's '10 steps to a safer ride' initiative emphasises the importance of both the customers and driver partners to contribute equally to ensure safety during all rides. As a precautionary protocol, the rides will be driven only across the identified safe zones and to ensure every driver-partner adheres to the safety rules, a mandatory selfie authentication mechanism has been put in place before and after every ride.

Furthermore, all cars will be cleaned and disinfected after each ride and a flexible cancellation policy has also been introduced through which both the customer and driver-partner can cancel the ride if they feel the other party is not following the rules or found without a mask.

The company has mandated driver-partners and customers to follow five precautionary steps each encouraging them to follow sanitary measures and practice personal hygiene etiquette at all times. It includes no travel in red zones, equipped with hygiene kits, flexible cancellations, only two passengers apart from the driver and cashless payments.