All-India transport strike on February 20 and 21

Get ready to endure two days of life without autos and buses. The all-India transport strike on February 20 and 21 is likely to cripple most public transport services in the city.

The strike has been called by various unions in order to put pressure on the Union government to change their economic policies and tackle the issue of drastic price rice.

Eight auto unions are participating in the strike and about 80,000 autorickshaws are likely to stay off the roads.

Unions belonging to the BMTC will also be participating in the strike over the two days. According to Anjum Parvez, MD, BMTC, "BMTC unions have said that they will be taking part in the strike. But we are not sure what the situation is going to be. We will have a discussion and see what we can do to ensure commuters are not affected," he said.

But taxi unions will not be participating in the strike.

But there is a silver lining amongst the bad news. With a very high likelihood of auto drivers charging exorbitant rates on the days of the strike, Ola Cabs, a cab service in the city, has decided to offer car rental services and point-to-point cab services at the rate of autorickshaws.

Bhavish Agarwal, CEO, Ola Cabs, said, "Over 1 lakh auto drivers are expected to participate in the strike and stay off roads. During the two days, there will be substantial disruption for those who travel regularly by autos. We will be running all our cabs at auto fares on these two days because we want to ensure that regular life in the city is not hampered.”