Having started from schools to corporates to rides on call and now venturing into the future of transportation - electric cars Baghirathi Group has been transforming the transportation segment by laying foundation for trust and safety via the best use of technology. The group has a very interesting inception story and glorious succeeding years thereafter. The founder, Mahesh Hariharan has more than 20 years of experience leading the logistics and shared mobility space. Mahesh’s Electric Vehicles venture takes a huge step forward, aiming to create an ecosystem that further promotes shared mobility, making it a realistic option for the conscious consumer.

In conversation with Mahesh Hariharan, CEO, Baghirathi Group

Tell us about Baghirathi’s inception. What kind of paint points did Baghirathi group addressed earlier, and what has changed?

To put it out, Baghirathi Group is unique and boasts of a fairy tale conception. Neil and I, from different backgrounds, grew together in a small town the hard way and consolidated our connexion. As revenue earnings dipped in the town due to unprecedented external factors, we dreamt big and moved to a bigger city of Bangalore to realize our vision.

We brought with us 25 of our ‘comrades’ from the small town and started a logistics company in Bangalore with only one vehicle brought from borrowed money in the year 2004. Of course, we named it after my grandmother, ‘Baghirathi’, to remain blessed. Interestingly, none of us had any experience in handling logistics.
As always, the initial stages were marred with intense struggle, failures, challenges and learnings, but the indomitable will to win displayed by the both of us and ably buttressed by the dedication & loyalty of our comrades, ensured immense success as we moved on relentlessly. Today after 14 years, the company stands tall and robust with an asset base of more than 2000 vehicles, employee count of more than 1000 and most importantly, a lady employee base of more than 500. We provide credible transportation service to more than 30 top end schools and an equal number of corporates. In fact, we were the first logistics entity to introduce technology into logistics solutions way back in 2007 when the market was still making notes. This head start in adopting technology ensured scalability, transparency, optimization and cost savings. The turning point in the company’s life cycle was ably displayed in 2017 when we introduced transportation using Electric Vehicles, a brilliant move keeping in perspective the future of transportation in India and abroad.

regards to our kids’ safety in every routine of their daily affairs. How has Baghirathi Group further enhanced this aspect with your contributions?

Team Baghirathi is dedicated in ensuring that safety and comfort is provided to each child that boards one of our school buses. We were the first school fleet in Bengaluru to have Lady Attendants on all our buses. We were also the first to comply with all new regulations for school fleets. We leave no stone unturned to make sure kids have a comfortable journey to and from school. Our mobile app with real-time GPS maps helps parents to stay assured that the bus has reached the school on time and that their child is back home on time.

Baghirathi Group, as an organization, has served the transportation industry with efficient vehicle deployment and usage. This has contributed to reducing pollution to some level. What further do you have in mind for the organization’s growth and prosperity?

We, as an organization have kept sustainability goals in mind. From 2003-2008 we planted over one lakh trees to offset carbon emissions of the vehicles we had deployed for transportation. From 2008 onwards we completely automated the transport operations thereby optimizing the footfall of vehicles and bringing efficiency by increasing occupancy of each vehicle. In addition, due to introduction of technology and credible digitization, we were able to go paperless for conducting operations. In 2017, we introduced Electric Vehicles in the fleet to mitigate tail pipe emissions and our future lies in using non-fossil fuel energy to re charge the electric vehicles and towards this we are working with companies dealing with alternate sources of energy. I can say, Baghirathi story epitomizes the dictum coined by Late President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam “You have to dream before your dream comes true and your dreams should be such that they do not let you sleep”.