Bhopal: The fate of cycle track on the Hoshangabad road hangs in the balance because of decline in number of its users by 80 per cent. The Rs 5 crore public bike sharing (PBS) track is designed to promote use of bicycles in the city. The minister of department of urban administration Jaivardhan Singh has instructed to stop any development on the cycle tracks across the state.
The 12-kilometer long strech on both the sides of Hoshangabad road is now used for other things such as doing yoga or taking morning walks by the local residents. The bicycles at the 80 docking stations are also biting dust as users have decreased by over 80 per cent.
In this situation, the tracks will be either uprooted or will be used for enhancing beauty of the road as only 6thousand users are using the track when there are 56thousand registered users in the city. The 12 kilometers long stretch was designed for users of public bike sharing (PBS) but it is not used by the commuters in the area.
The cycle track was started with 100 cycles some 2.5 years ago and since then the Bhopal smart city development corporation limited (BSCDCL) has inducted around 400 extra bicycles in its kitty. The scheme is run on PPP mode with a firm Chartered.
Plan to attract cyclists
BMC commissioner and executive director of BSCDCL Abhijeet Agrawal says that there is a need to focus on what is to be done to attract the users of the PBS scheme and then we can plan things such as organising a reward based competition or inviting some ace cyclists from the country to infuse fresh charm among them.
