BENGALURU: After Guwahati and Baroda, Bengaluru is set to get its Bicycle Mayor today, the announcement for which will be made at 6 pm by Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF), an NGO.
The Bicycle Mayor will actively promote cycling as a means to replace motorised transport. He will be the public face for cycling initiatives and will attend events and promote cycling initiatives. The Mayor will hold the post for two years.
ESAF is an NGO, which is one of the core organising members of Bengaluru Coalition for Open Streets. It is supported by ByCS (formerly Cycle Space), a Dutch organisation based in Amsterdam, working towards the ambitious goal, where 50% of all city trips would be on bicycles by 2030. Presently, mayors have been chosen for Sydney, Amsterdam and Sao Paulo.
The elected mayor will get a chance to work with the state government, ByCS and the Dutch embassy in India. Sathya Sankaran, one of the six finalists for the Bicycle Mayor. He said he would like to bring in a non-motorised transport policy if chosen as Bicycle Mayor. Prabhakar Rao CM, founder of a group called Go Green Initiators, 15-year-old Maharshi Sanket, Anil Prabhakar who wants to facilitate the transportation of cycles on metro and public transport, Murali Karthik, a social worker, and HR Murali, founder of Namma Nimma Cycle Foundation are other finalists in the race to become Bicycle Mayor.