Uber Slashes Base Fare for Mumbai Cabs to Rs. 20

The fare wars in the cab-aggregation business continue. In its latest move, Uber has cut the base fare for the low-cost uberGO option by more than half, from Rs. 45 to Rs. 20; at least for users in Mumbai, and for a limited time only.

In an email sent to customers, Uber stated that the uberGO base fare is now Rs. 20 for trips that are shorter than 4kms, from Wednesday September 7 to Sunday September 11. Users don't need to have to enter any promo codes for this discount.

A representative confirmed that this is only a temporary measure that Uber has announced for Mumbai, and added that at present the company has no plans for doing this in other places.

With the new low rates, a trip from Churchgate to Colaba goes from being around Rs. 85 to Rs. 65; going from Khar to Bandra usually costs approximately Rs. 60, but will be around Rs. 40 until Sunday. This is likely going to exacerbate the friction between Uber and black and yellow cabs and autorickshaws, who went on strike a couple of months ago to protest again cab services like Uber.

Uber rival Ola's fares remain unchanged according to its website - the cheapest option for Ola in Mumabi is the Micro, which has a base fare of Rs. 45, and Rs. 6 per km up till 20km, plus Rs. 12 per km for every km after that. Both companies have different charges for different cities - for example, Ola Micro in Bengaluru has a base fare of just Rs. 40, and the same per kilometre charge, but the switch to Rs. 12 per km happens post 15kms, not 20kms.

Ola had rolled out the Micro fare in March this year, making it significantly cheaper to use. Uber in turn dropped the fare for uberGO.

Although the new rate cut is a temporary measure for now, it could point to a more lasting change in Uber's rates, escalating the fare wars between the two companies.