Thousands of people join cyclothon in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: Thousands of people from all walks of life joined Saksham Cyclothon with their bicycles in the city on Sunday. Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan flagged off the cyclothon from Kalinga Stadium here and led the participants for an 11km cycle ride.
The cyclothon was organised by Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA), a society under the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas. Objective of the cycling event is to instill socio-environmental consciousness among citizens towards the larger aim of conserving fuel.

The cyclothon event had two categories- Saksham Elite Race (for men- 33 km/women-22 km) and Saksham Green Ride (11km) from Kalinga Stadium to Khandagiri via Jaydev Vihar Chhak and back to Kalinga Stadium in the same route.

While the Elite categories had serious cyclists, the 11-km category allowed participants to experience the joy of cycling and spread message the message reducing excessive dependency on oil.

Winner of the Elite Race (Men) Rajesh from Tamil Nadu won a cash prize of Rs 1.25 lakh, while the Elite women's champion Rutuja from Maharashtra got Rs 1 lakh as prize money. Around 10,000 cyclists, mostly schools and college students, participated in the Green ride. A total of Rs 6 lakh has been awarded to the cyclists as cash prizes. Besides, 50 cycles were distributed to participants through a lucky draw.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed people to avoid the use of petrol and diesel for at least one day in the week to conserve fuels and contribute towards nation building. Cycling will also give health benefit," said Pradhan in the event.

More than 70 such cyclothons have been planned across the country over the next three months to sensitize people to adopt the ideology of conservation for a greener environment, said a PCRA official.

Noted personalities include cyclist Minati Mohapatra, hockey player VR Raghunath, sprinter Amiya Kumar Mallik, Cricketer Munaf Patel, Odia cine stars like Mihir Das, Anu Choudhury, Sabyasachi Mishra and Archita Sahu cheered up the participants.