Capital Ranchi will roll out a public cycle sharing scheme, aimed at promoting eco-friendly travel options as a part of Ranchi Smart City project, by the end of November.
Sources in the Ranchi Smart City Corporation (RSCCL), a special purpose vehicle incorporated in September 2016 for executing the grand plan, revealed that the cycles would be rolled out on two important routes in Ranchi.
“Around 60 cycle stations are almost complete in various parts of the city. As many as 600 cycles will be launched from these stations on two routes. The aim is to provide commuters an environment-friendly mode of conveyance using, which they can reach even bylanes without causing traffic congestion,” said an official in the know.
The two routes on which the cycles would be introduced are Kanke Road-Chandni Chowk-Suchana Bhawan and Main Road (also known as Mahatma Gandhi Road), and Kokar-Lalpur-Circular Road-Morabadi.
“We admit that there have been delays but now things are in the final phase,” said smart city corporation general manager (technical) Rakesh Kumar Nand Keolyar.
“Imported bicycle parts from Germany have landed at Haldia port in Bengal and are now being brought to Ranchi. The private agency assigned the task has assured us that the two-wheelers would be assembled and the service launched in November. Ideally, we would like to start before the statehood day function (November 14). But even if that does not happen, we will definitely launch the service before the end of November,” he said.
The state cabinet had okayed the cycle sharing project in August 2017. The plan was to have 1,200 cycles stationed in 120 docks in two phases.
Smart city corporation PRO Amit Kumar said cycle sharing would be an app based service with a control room.
Cycles, he said, can be booked online by paying a subscription fee of Rs 30 a day, Rs 200 a month and Rs 1,000 a year in addition to nominal user charges. The first 30 minutes is free. However, there will be few counters for those do not have access to smartphones.
Ahmedbad-based private agency M/s Chartered Bikes would be running the scheme for six years from the time of launch.
PRO Kumar said depending on the success of the scheme, the number of cycles and cycle stations would be increased.
According to data available with Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, a non-profit working on transport issues, half of Ranchi’s 14-lakh population depends on non-motorised forms of transport daily and they would benefit a lot from this scheme.