City residents with smart bicycles during an event in Chandigarh this year. (File) The city residents will now be able to avail bicycles in Chandigarh for free, under the public bike-sharing system here, till September 12. The bicycle rides will only be chargeable after the technical glitches are solved and teething issues stabilised, said the UT officials on Thursday. The public bike-sharing project was launched last week Thursday, and since then, the users have been facing numerous issues with starting and ending e-cycle rides, opening the cycles’ lock and payments– making it was a tedious task for people.
UT MC Commissioner and Chief Executive officer of Chandigarh Smart City KK Yadav also confirmed the development. “The company has been informed that until the system stabilises, they do not have to charge anything for the rides. This is till September 12,” Yadav said.
Moreover, even as the earlier statements said the ride would cost Rs 10, an amount of Rs 11.80 is being charge, including GST.
The officials of the Chandigarh Smart City said that they have informed the smart bikes company that technical issues have been cropping up in their software. Officials said that a month’s time has been given to the company from August 12 to remove all teething issues, while the company has assured that they will rectify the issues by August 31.
Local resident and RTI activist RK Garg said, “I think the company has listened to the public and it will be appreciated by people. Of course people should be provided fully-charged cycles and the app should work well. Also, there should be a time for cycling which is 4:30 am to 12 am.”
Since August 12, at least 11,845 registrations have been made in the bike-sharing mobile app.
LAUNCHED LAST THURSDAY
UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore launched the first phase of the public bike-sharing project here last Thursday. It was said that Chandigarh is the only city to launch the project on a pan-city basis. The deployment of pedal assisted hybrid e-bicycles at the city docks was also announced.
The electric bicycles are likely to be more user-friendly as they run on ‘pedal assist’ system.
The bike system is fully-automated, operated by SmartBike mobile app. Through the app, a rider is able to locate the closest bike station, unlock the bike, ride and return the bike at any bike station. The facilities include the network of docking stations, GPS-based tracking of bicycles, central control system with call centre, workshop, user registration, online fare collection and advertisement space. The project will be maintained by a firm for 10 years.
SmartBike dock stations
The dock stations have been set up at sectors 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 52, PU, PGI, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Manimajra, Sukhna Lake, Rock / Rose Garden and GMSH-16.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
