NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has developed the hardware and software for fully automated self-service public bicycle share system (PBS) that includes a Bluetooth-enabled smart lock and a user interface application that connects it to smartphones.

“This project adheres to the ‘Make in India’ initiative and is expected to result in a cost-effective PBS system for the current and future smart cities of India,” said a spokesperson of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), which is funding the project to start commercial production of the smart lock developed by IIT Kharagpur. This dock-less system could be the country’s first official cycle sharing system.

Currently PBS providers in the country import smart bicycle locks from China. However, the business model is not viable because each lock costs around Rs 7,000, said Debapratim Pandit, who is leading the project at IIT Kharagpur.

His team of researchers, which started the hardware development in September 2017, targeted to bring the cost of smart locks down to Rs 2,500-4,000. “We imported one lock (from China) for testing during early 2017 and developed the Android-based user interfaces,” he said.