BENGALURU: One of the biggest and most important projects for cyclists in Bengaluru, the creation of a 27.5km cycle track in and around HSR Layout, seems to have hit a roadblock. This has lead cyclists to believe that the city authorities need to be far more serious in creating infrastructure to support non-motorised transport.
The track, which was to be built by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and financed by the Department of Urban Land Transport (DULT) at a cost of `18.54 crore, was announced in May 2017 and was supposed to have been completed in nine months. However, officials say the BBMP has hit a roadblock.
This means that when the PBS system commences, the city will not have a single dedicated cycle track. But according to DULT, there is some work underway to ensure that the PBS project sees good support, like it has in Mysuru. Darpan Jain, Commissioner, DULT, told The New Indian Express, “We have identified certain safe routes for bicyclists and are also in the process of finalising a list of roads where cycle lanes can be built. These will be notified soon.”
On the topic of safety of cyclists, Jain said, “The increase in cyclists and the increase in projects dedicated to cyclists’ safety will complement each other. The PBS will launch at its own pace without waiting for the infrastructure to come up,” he said adding that the system itself had several safeguards like dedicated parking locations.
On the issue of scalability, which was pointed out by some experts, Jain said the initial number of 6,000 cycles was an indicative figure which would be increased. “We are ready to look at higher numbers of bicycles. The 6,000 cycles is indicative of the areas in which we want to launch the sharing system first,” he said.