The much awaited ‘Bicycle Sharing’ project which is a part of mega ‘Smart City’ venture to promote eco friendly transportation mode will be started soon here in State Capital.
If all goes well, the ambitious project is expected to get launched within three weeks as all major work (documentation and identification of sites) have been completed.
Municipal Commissioner, Shaantanu Kumar Agrahari on Sunday said that the work of demarcating and creating bicycle stands (DOCK) which was initiated a while ago from Kanke Road covering other localities have been completed.
“Attempts are being made to start this project within three to four weeks or even earlier. Over 90 per cent of tasks that involves identification of sites, creation of DOCK at a few selected localities have been completed. Minor civil work is left at lalpur and Club Road which will be completed within a week,” the Municipal Commissioner said.
The major agencies -- State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) and Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) involved in initiating the projects will be soon receiving the new fleet of bicycles. “After completing export and import procedure which is consuming time, the company will be delivering bicycles soon,” added Agrahari.
SUDA had signed an agreement with Ahmadabad-based Transport Company ‘Chartered Speed’ who recently partnered with Germany-based bicycle rental startup Next-bike for launching Bicycle sharing project here in State Capital. Bi-cycle stands are created at Kanke Road, Morhabadi, Radium Road, Kutchery Chowk and MG Marg.
Recently, Principal Secretary, Department of Urban Development, Housing and planning Arun Singh, Municipal Commissioner Shaantanu Kumar Agrahari including Director (SUDA) Rakesh Kumar Sharma conducted inspection of all the selected sites.
As per the plan, the further expansion of the cycle sharing project will be taken up in a phase wise manner covering all prime locations of capital city especially footfall of public and connectivity. Director – SUDA, Rakesh Kumar Sharma had earlier said that at least nine months time more will be required to initiate the project in a full-fledged way covering all other major junctions.
According to the officials of SUDA, over 122 bicycle stations (DOCK) will be created at a prominent distance within the capital city. As per the agreement, around 1200 bicycles will be given by the company to popularize the cycle sharing culture among the urban populace.
All bicycles will have Global Positing System (GPS) embedded on it to maintain a track record. In August 2017, the State cabinet approved the proposal of setting up the bicycle sharing system on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) Mode. However, rental charges and other formalities for availing this service are yet to be disclosed by the officials.