BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is set to issue a formal letter to the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) by Wednesday giving it permission to kick-start the public bicycle sharing (PBS) project for the City. Over 6,000 cycles will be made available in the city at 402 parking locations, including those at seven Metro stations, within a period of four to six weeks.
BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad told The New Indian Express that DULT’s proposal was approved in the last session of the BBMP council. “Within a day or two, we are issuing the order to DULT. It can initiate the process of making cycles available to public immediately after that.” BBMP needs to call for tenders to create the required infrastructure.
According to Special Officer of DULT, N Muralikrishna, these Metro stations will have the facility in the first round: Sir M Visvesvaraya, Dr B R Ambedkar (Vidhana Soudha), Cubbon Park, M G Road, Trinity Circle, Halasuru and Indira Nagar. “The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has asked us to provide cycles in all its operational 40 stations. We will start off with these seven stations.”
Due to huge footfall witnessed at Metro stations, there will be a large hub (can house 48 cycles) at each of them. Apart from these large hubs, medium hubs (24 cycles) and small hubs (12 cycles) are being proposed. DULT has also identified 125 kilometres in the city for putting in place bicycle lanes. This includes 75 kilometre of dedicated lanes.
“The hire charges will be similar to the popular Trin Trin project in Mysuru. The decision depends on the operator, but we will intervene if they charge exorbitant,” Muralikrishna said. These are prevailing rates in Mysuru: Rs 5 up to two hours; Rs 10 from two to three hours and Rs 25 per hour after the third hour.