Minister of Municipal Administration and Water Supply S.P. Velumani launched a bicycle sharing system in Coimbatore.
Addressing the gathering at the SRP Ammani Ammal School in R.S. Puram on Saturday, the Minister said the bicycle sharing system was an environmentally importance option aimed at de-congesting the city. The government would take steps to have the system introduced in other parts of the State, he added.
Police Commissioner K. Periaiah said the bicycle sharing system would bring about a “revolutionary change” in the way the city commuted. In Netherlands, 99 % of the people used bicycles as a form of public transport. In Denmark it was 80 % and in Germany it was 75 %, he added.
Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan said the civic body would facilitate the gradual expansion of the bicycle sharing system to other parts of the city. Quoting a mobility study, he said 45 % of the city’s 20 lakh people used public transport. For them bicycles could be a form of public transport.
ofo, the bicycle sharing company’s Director, Public Policy, said since the launch on Saturday morning, the company had recorded 6,000 rides.
ofo said it had deployed around 1,000 bicycles and would soon increase the number to 2,000. Currently, most of the bicycle pick up points were concentrated in and around R.S. Puram but it would soon cover other parts of the city.
The company said it had planned, as of now, to go free for a month and decide on the fare, which would be based on the time of use. The users would be able to pay by debit or credit card or through Paytm, a mobile wallet facility.
The company said it had already mapped the entire city for pick up points and would launch the services depending on patronage. The company would monitor online the duration of rides, distance of rides, the geographic concentration of the usage and other factors before launching the rides in other areas.
It had thus far launched the bicycle sharing system only in closed campuses – information technology parks or college campus in other cities in the country and Coimbatore was its first city-level launch.
ofo had been in the country only since January 2018 and had had encouraging response in that students had used the bicycles as early as 2 a.m.
Customers in a few cities had also used those as part of their early morning exercise schedule. The bicycle sharing system, therefore, was a virtually 24x7 service, ofo said.
