Uber launches services in four Indian cities

Uber, the taxi and ridesharing service, has launched services simultaneously in four new Indian cities - Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata on Tuesday.

The company in a blog post titled "Kem chho, sat sri akal, namaste, kemon aacho india! Your ubers have arrived in four new cities!" said that "On the 19th of August, India woke up to the news of Uber launching simultaneously in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata. With this first of a kind Quadruple Launch, Uber India is now in 10 cities and is the largest market for Uber outside the US (by number of operational cities)."

Uber India is also offering three free rides worth Rs. 200 each to new users only. The blog post said, "If you're new to Uber, please download our app, sign up using the promo code 'UBERLOVESINDIA' and get 3 free rides worth Rs. 200 each (New users only, Valid until 30th September, 2014)."

The company further added, "During our testing phase we will have limited cars available; expect longer ETAs than usual. As they say, please 'adjust'. We are working hard to add cars across all four cities and deliver the ultimate Uber experience."

The US-based startup launched its India operations in August last year, starting with Bangalore. Uber soon added more cities and started operating with the regular UberBlack service in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

In June, Uber India launched a low cost service called UberX. The service kicked-off with three cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Last month, Lyft, a privately-held donation based firm from San Francisco, launched its ride-sharing service in New York. Uber has been considered as one of the arch rivals of the Lyft taxi service.