SUMMARY
Have a valid lease agreement with Mahindra First Choice for a vehicle parking yard and have not received any notice from the government authorities, an Ola spokesperson said
The developments come days after reports emerged that around 350 Ola cars got submerged due to the overflowing Hindon River at the dump yard in Greater Noida
An email sent to Mahindra First Choice from Inc42 did not elicit a response
Commenting on the recent incident of the Noida flood that drowned 350 ola
cabs in a parking yard, the cab aggregator has said that the yard was taken on lease from Mahindra First Choice, and it has not received any notice from the government authorities.
“We have a valid lease agreement with Mahindra First Choice for a vehicle parking yard in Noida. Ola has not received any notice from the government authorities since the inception of our lease agreement in 2020,” an Ola spokesperson said, adding that further queries may be directed to the lessor, Mahindra First Choice.
The developments come days after reports emerged that around 350 cars of Ola, parked at a dump yard in Greater Noida, were submerged due to the overflowing Hindon River.
As per a PTI report from earlier this week, police said, “In the village, there is a dump yard of Ola’s car. The vehicles recovered during the time of Covid-19 pandemic or those vehicles which got damaged are kept at this yard. The number of these vehicles is around 350.”
“It is built on the land of a person named Satpal… The caretaker informed the police that these vehicles are currently parked in the dump yard. The high-level management of Ola was informed about water filling in the dump yard and given a notice by the police to vacate the yard in view of the rising water level of the Hindon River,” the police added.
Meanwhile, an email sent to Mahindra First Choice did not elicit a response immediately.
It is yet to be ascertained how much this incident has cost Ola.
Currently, Ola offers cab, auto, and bike services. Besides its prime sedan, prime SUV, and rental car options, the company announced entering the premium EV category with a fleet of 10,000 cars earlier this year.
Recently, US-based investment firm Vanguard Group slashed the valuation of Ola by 35% to $4.8 Bn from $7.4 Bn in May this year.
With profitability in focus and amid a funding crunch, the cab aggregator also laid off around 200 employees from its tech and product teams as part of a restructuring exercise earlier this year.
