Three cities of Andhra Pradesh including Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and the capital region development area (CRDSA) will get a public bicycle sharing system. The subscriber will get a swipe card or a subscriber code on phones to release their bikes from the bike stations. Through this Vizag will promote the eco-friendly and independent mode of transport. By the end of this year the port city will become AP’s first city to get such bike stations.
The Government of AP and All India Bicycling Federation inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the same in the CII Partnership Summit held in the city in recent past. The number of bike stations in the city will depend on the density of population and the demand of the population. Each station will have around 20-50 cycles. People with imported bicycles can use their swipe card and subscriber code on their mobile phones to unlock and release their bicycles from the attached docks for use.
Reportedly talking about the project DV Manohar, chairman of Shri Shakti Group and chairman of All India Bicycling Federation said, “Already a demo bike station terminal has been put up at Nagole in Hyderabad. In fact, 300 bike stations have been planned for Hyderabad too out of which three are ready. In AP, we will begin with Vizag and put up 20-25 stations with plans to start the first station on Beach Road this year. The project cost for AP would be around Rs 100 crore and in 2017, around Rs 10 crore would be spent.”
He added, “Even though there has not been any financial commitment from the government, we are hopeful of support in the initial phases. Later, funds can be raised locally under CSR activity. The government is mentoring the public bike sharing project. MoU with the commissioner of APCRDA and municipal commissioners of Kakinada and Vizag has been inked. They would provide us required small pieces of land in different areas of the cities to set up the bike stations. We would also have to build cycling tracks and raise public awareness.”
EOM
