No takers for carpools

The ‘jammers’ who powered the Meter Jam campaign and signed up for carpooling to help fellow jammers commute claimed they did not receive any calls or requests.

The ‘jammers’ who powered the Meter Jam campaign and signed up for carpooling to help fellow jammers commute claimed they did not receive any calls or requests on Thursday.

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The campaign had urged Mumbaiites to boycott taxis and auto rickshaws for a day on Thursday.

Twenty-year-old Churchgate resident Prateek Agarwal volunteered to ferry people from Churchgate to Mazagaon on his bike.

“I think because Ramzan started on Thursday, it wasn’t the right day for Meter Jam,” said Agarwal.

“Nobody contacted me for a ride but that could have been because the route was different.”

The consolidated sheet of those offering carpools was uploaded on Facebook on Wednesday morning, which, according to many was too late for people to plan their travel.

“I had no information about carpools despite having signed up for the campaign online. I also put up a placard on my windscreen but no one asked me for a lift,” said Prakash Nanavati, who offered to drive people between Hiranandani, Powai, to Mulund-Airoli bridge.

Ajay Tomar, who travels from Kharghar to Churchgate, also signed up online offering carpooling along the route.

But he said he did not receive any calls on Thursday.

“Unlike rickshaws or taxis, there is no union of citizens so the message did not reach everyone,” said Ganesh Mudaliar, a Goregaon resident, who gave an acquaintance a lift from Andheri station to JB Nagar.

“It needed more publicity and people should have been given sufficient notice for the response to be better,” added Mudaliar.