It was but an idea from senior advocate Aalok Mehrotra, that took to ease traffic and pollution on the winding Mussoorie-Dehradun Road. Taking a beeline from his son and daughter in law both car-poolers from Delhi’s Greater Kailash to Supreme Court; 62 year old Mehrotra started a WhatsApp group of car poolers in Mussoorie.
Started on December 1 last year the group has close to 152 members and counting who make frequent trips from the hill-station to Dehradun and beyond.
So how does this work? Simple! Members post their travel plans with time, location and seat availability of their respective car journey on the Car Poolers Mussoorie and anyone interested, gets in touch via message or call and hitches a free ride.
From dentists to hoteliers, entrepreneurs to businessmen, students to housewives are all hooked onto the group. “The idea is to help the environment and also cut down on traffic on the roads. There are close to 10 posts per-day on the group offering rides not only to Dehradun but as far as Delhi, Jolly Grant airport, Tehri, Chandigarh as well. Services are being availed by all sections of the society, it has been a great help to patients and students,” updates Aalok Mehrotra.
The fact that Mussoorie is a small hill-station with a close-knit community makes the group popular and safe for commuters to use. Frequent user Pranav Sahni swears by it, “to begin with, it’s a great boost for the environment. Secondly Mussoorie is a close-knit community and everyone knows each other. It helps to keep those relationships intact.”
For Sardar Trilochan Singh and his wife who travel to Dehradun regularly due to personal health issues consider the group a blessing, “this group has helped me in time of need. I dont have a four wheeler and commuting to Dehradun was next to impossible, but people in the group go out of their way to help me and work around my timings.”
Car Poolers Mussoorie is need of the hour, apart from solving traffic snarls, cutting down on pollution the group has become a viable and feasible alternate for those who need wheels to a get around, a blessing indeed!
