BENGALURU: While most businesses have taken a beating due to the pandemic, bicycle business is booming. More people prefer commuting by bicycles in the city thanks to the partial and later stricter lockdown. Medical practitioners, public sector firm employees and delivery agents are among the new clientele who opt to pedal to work.
Public bike-sharing service, Yulu, which aims at offering micro-mobility services, has clearly seen a surge in demand for its electric bikes ‘Miracle’. Yulu Zones have been set up near hospitals, medical shops and diagnostic labs.
Yulu Co-founder and COO Hemant Gupta said the first quarter of this calendar year had been very encouraging. “During this Covid period, when there is a demand for home delivery, it has offered an option for many unemployed people who cannot afford to buy a vehicle to work as delivery agents without any investment from their side.”There are around 8,000 ‘Miracle’ vehicles in Bengaluru.
Safety is a big factor working in favour of these bikes, Gupta added. “We sanitise the vehicles regularly and when one accesses our app, it displays the time when the bike was last sanitised. We are probably the only firm in the world making this public.”