Commuters who depend on cab aggregators will now have to brace themselves for the outage and surge pricing that is to follow this Diwali. As the festive season has begun, many drivers working with Ola and Uber have started to leave for their hometown. This has lessened the number of cabs plying on roads of Delhi.

Since Friday, the number of cabs available with both Ola and Uber have reduced, especially during peak hours even as the demand is rising steadily given the festive rush. As a result, the waiting period, which generally does not exceed five to eight minutes, has also shot up.

According to regular users, the waiting time has increased to a minimum of 15 minutes even during non-peak hours. "I wanted to go to Delhi from Noida but there were hardly any cabs. It took me more than 45 minutes to book one and it took 20 minutes for the cab to reach because it was far from my pick up point," said Jhanavi Aggrawal, a resident of Sector 110, Noida.

People have also complained of shortage even in pool or share services. "Share cabs are also not available. Generally it is easy to board one that is passing by your location but I was unable to get any on both Ola and Uber. I was simultaneously booking on both the apps but no luck," said Rahul Girhotra, a resident of IP Extension.The prices have also surged due to short supply. Commuters have claimed to have paid twice the fare.

"When I booked the cab, it showed a 50 per cent hike compared to regular fare. I booked it nevertheless as I was to go to hospital urgently,"complained Seema Jain, a resident of Vikaspuri. The outage is being attributed to drivers, a lot of whom are migrants, going back home to celebrate Diwali.

Holi and Rakshabandhan are other two occasions when the services are hit as cabbies head back home. Nirdosh Kumar, a driver with Ola told DNA, "Not many cabs are plying as a lot of them are travelling to their villages. This will continue till Diwali." Another driver, Babbu Singh added that festive rush causes massive traffic jams, which is another reason they do not take any rides.

"These days, it takes more than an hour to reach a destination 30 minutes away. So we refuse rides to some places to avoid getting caught in jam and losing on business. It is better to take multiple rides for shorter routes," he said.

High Demand, Low Supply

• People have also complained of shortage even in pool or share services 
• The prices have also surged due to short supply. Commuters have claimed to have paid twice the fare 
• The outage is being attributed to drivers, a lot of whom are migrants, going back home to celebrate Diwali 
• Holi and Rakshabandhan are other two occasions when the services are hit as cabbies head back home