Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19

Following a large number of complaints regarding glitches in the public bike-sharing project, e-bicycle rides have been made free till September 12.

NP Sharma, Chief General Manager, Chandigarh Smart City Limited, confirmed that the cycle rides would be free till September 12.

Chandigarh Tribune had highlighted that users were facing several issues with the Smart Bike App, particularly in starting or ending the ride. The company will work on fixing all issues.

“We will not charge the users for now as they are facing some issues. We do not want to burden them and have decided to fix the glitches by then,” said Abhinandan Malhotra, the city head of the project.

What project head says

We will not charge the users for now as they are facing some issues. We do not want to burden them and have decided to fix the glitches. — Abhinandan Malhotra, city head of project

“I think the company has listened to the public and it is a good sign, which people should appreciate. The time of cycling should be from 4.30 am to midnight. People should be provided fully charged cycles and the app should work well. These issues must be fixed, otherwise people should not be charged even after that,” said RK Garg, a social activist, who raised the issue with the firm.

Meanwhile, users are still facing problems in locking and unlocking cycles using the app. Some even complained of overcharging.

Lipika, who lives in a working women’s hostel in Sector 24, told Chandigarh Tribune, “I have been using bicycles from docking stations in Sector 16, 15 and 23. I had a bad experience. After scanning the bar code with the app, the cycle did not get unlocked. It showed errors such as bike not found and low location accuracy. I had to then call up customer care after which the issue was resloved. What is the use of this app when it will not working properly?”

“Sometimes, the app starts charging us, but the cycles don’t get unlocked. This is a good project, but they should ensure that the app supports the system. Otherwise, the project will come a cropper,” said a Panjab University student.

The first phase of the much-fancied project was launched by UT Administrator VP Singh Bandore on August 12. A total of 1,250 bicycles at 155 docking stations were made available in the city. An amount of Rs10 plus the GST is charged for half an hour.