Smart City Bhubaneswar to introduce public bicycle sharing system

Bhubaneswar: Soon a Public Bicycle Sharing (PBS) system, controlled by Mobile applications (apps), will be introduced in Smart City Bhubaneswar as part of a strategy to develop a non-motorised, green and healthy city transport network.

Speaking on the initiative, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) Vice-Chairman Krishan Kumar informed that commuters can ride bicycles after booking them from their cell phones.

"Bhubaneswar Development Authority will start bicycle sharing service in Bhubaneswar and bookings can be done through a mobile app; 2,000 cycles installed with GPS will be available in first phase," said Kumar.

In the Phase-I, PBS will be introduced in Janpath, Cuttack-Puri Road, Jagamara-Sundarpada Road, Bidyut Marg, Airport-Nandankanan Road, Sachivalaya Marg and parts of National Highway within the city.

These GPS-equipped bicycles will be available at different parts of the capital city. While a company 'Mobike' will be providing the bicycles, parking stations and other required services will be set up by the Odisha government, informed sources.

Commuters will be allowed to drive the bicycle for free for first 30 minutes and subsequently, they will be charged. Moreover, bicycles can be parked at designated stands without bringing them back to the original location, said sources.

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A high-level meeting was organised today at the Secretariat where Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, BDA and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) presented a road map to introduce PBS and make it user-friendly and effective.

While a dedicated cycle lane will be developed in the first phase, PBS will be introduced along a 40-km stretch with main focus being on Smart District and Info City areas-  also known as core area.

As per sources, the bicycles shall be deployed in remotely controlled parking spaces located in every 400-500 metre distance within the core area. All the cycles shall have remote locking and unlocking facilities. In case of shortage of cycles in a particular zone, cycles would be transported from other areas to that zone, informed sources.

To provide better transit linkages with the existing city bus services, the parking spaces shall be set up near bus stops.