THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cycling is definitely a favourite hobby of many capital residents now, especially after the lockdown started. Madhur B, who recently became the new ‘Junior Bicycle Mayor’ of Thiruvananthapuram, can tell us more about this. Madhur is the second Junior Bicycle Mayor of the city after Aparna Prabhakar, who was selected from among the 24 students nominated by their schools.
Madhur has seized every opportunity to promote cycling among students. She is now the fourth of five Junior Bicycle Mayors in the world — Amsterdam and Dublin appointed the first two, Valsad in Gujarat is home to the third bicycle mayor and the fifth one hails from Guwahati.
Devadath V of Vattiyoorkavu VHSC became the new Junior Bicycle Captain of the city. “The Junior Bicycle Mayor programme aims to promote cycling among students in the city. The Junior Bicycle Mayor is selected from among Class VII to XII students at schools within the corporation.
Contestants were nominated by the staff coordinator of Bicycle Brigade from the respective schools,” said Prakash P Gopinath, Bicycle Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram. The programme is endorsed by Amsterdam-based organisation ‘BYCS’ and aims to develop the social networking skills among the students, he said.
According to Madhur, more people beginning to use cycles would go a long way for the environment. “My future plans include requesting the authorities to set up cycle tracks and facilities where people can park their cycles safely. Several areas in the city need to be made bicycle-friendly and the government should also encourage the people to use bicycles,” she says.
Madhur has already organised webinars on cycling in several schools. She also plans to launch Bicycle Brigade in her school in order to ensure a healthy and environment-friendly lifestyle for students.