HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Bicycling Club (HBC), Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) and UN Habitat on Thursday entered into a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding to provide first and last mile connectivity to the Metro Rail passengers by setting up about 300 bike stations. Of the 300 bike stations, 63 would be at the forthcoming Metro stations and the rest will be feeder stations spread all over city.
About 10,000 state-of-the-art bicycles including e-bikes would be positioned at these bike stations which would be issued and taken back using swipe card and smart phone technology.
Speaking to reporters here, HMR MD NVS Reddy, former Mayor of Adelaide City and Urban Futurist Stephen Yarwood, chairman of HBC DV Manohar said that the project is eco-friendly and aimed at considerably reducing the vehicle pollution. This project would also be the largest Public Bike Sharing (PBS) system of its kind in the world.
The total cost of the project comes to around Rs 100 crore and would be raised from UN Habitat and other international organisations under climate fund and others.
NVS Reddy said time has come to discourage usage of cars and encourage cycling to reduce pollution and bring down carbon prints. Manohar said that state government is supportive of this unique project and passed orders in May this year nominating HMR as the nodal agency to work with HBC. Each bike costs around Rs 50,000 while e-bike costs Rs 1 lakh.
“We are in touch with prospective funding agencies both in India and abroad for raising the required funds and also arranging the margin money from our side,’’ he added.
The project has already attracted international recognition. HBC has grown multiple times in the past few years to reach the present membership strength of over 12,000 members.
HBC bike stations at Gachibowli and Necklace Road have transformed the city, resulting in more and more people taking to cycling.
Yarwwod said that future is not in the cars but in public transport system.