The ambitious Cycle Sharing project under the flagship venture of Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited is likely to commence soon. Sources informed that the bicycle parts from Taiwan and Germany have reached Ranchi and the assembling work will soon be completed.
“Parts of approximately 600 bicycles have reached the State capital and they will be assembled within a few days. Also, a meeting regarding the announcement of tentative dates for the launch of the bicycle project in the first phase will be conducted within a week. The meeting will be presided over by Corporation Head and other senior officials,” said, Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited PRO, Amit Parmar.
The PRO informed that the project will start with around 400-500 bi-cycles in the first phase covering nearly 60 bicycle docks. Also, efforts are being made to popularise the service of customised bicycle here. The project being initiated with a purpose of promoting eco-friendly transportation mode apart from giving respite to the city residents from regular traffic jam was hanging in the balance merely in the wake of receiving the bicycle consignments. Notably, the custom clearance procedure had hit a regulatory road block to initiate this ambitious project.
As per announcement made by the officials, the ‘Green-Bike’ project was expected to kick start by mid-May in 2018 but the project has been running behind the schedule as the bicycles fleet which were to be imported were stuck in custom clearance procedures for more than three months now. After sending the reminder letter to the concerned company, the parts of the bicycles have been successfully imported from Germany and Taiwan.
State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) had signed an agreement with Ahmedabad-based Transport Company ‘Chartered Speed’ for starting this venture. ‘Chartered Speed’ who recently partnered with Germany-based bicycle rental startup ‘Next-bike’ will launch this project in the State Capital covering major routes.
The bicycle docks are constructed covering localities like Kanke Road, Morhabadi, Radium Road, Kutchery Chowk, MG Marg including Big Bazaar. The project involves a whopping Rs 21.8 crore. Rental charges, security, membership cost including its annual maintenance cost for availing this service will be disclosed by the officials soon.
In August 2017, the State Cabinet had approved the proposal of starting the bicycle sharing project on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) Mode. The construction work of bicycle docks was initiated in May 2018. Out of 122 identified spots for construction of bi-cycle docks, civil construction work of nearly all docks has been completed.
