Rent a bike…..

I was walking through the streets of Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. I witnessed some foreigners driving those low powered mopeds. I was curious whether they bought those mopeds or hired those. I talked to a person named Gabriele and his wife Julies. They told me that they have hired the mopeds from a local shop. They hired the moped for Rs. 200 per day excluding fuel, which was on their expense. Also they had to submit some ID proof.     

Then I went to a local moped renting guy named Surangapani. His shop name was “Om Shakti”. He told me that he has 5 mopeds and charges Rs. 200 daily per moped. Also he had 15 bicycles which he used to rent out for Rs. 10 per hour per bicycle. The mopeds were low powered TVS XL super and medium powered Honda Activa.

The shop had some other stuff also like some handicrafts and stone carvings. His daughter also used to do some Heena applying work there. He told me that the road on which his shop was had a lot of hotels and restaurants which used to attract a lot of tourists and subsequently help in his business. Also there were 5-6 moped renting shops in the area, so not much competition.

He told that the peak season for the business is August to February. Also most of the tourists are Indians now a days unlike some years back when most of the tourists were used to be foreigners. According to him the current season is going bad as far as business is concerned because of the threat of Tsunami in this area.

So my experience with Surangapani was really good. I got to know about a small yet important business in unorganized sector. Also I took a picture of the shop which is attached with this blog. Hope to interact with some other local moped renting guys in future.

Ayush Gulati

FT 13416