Bhopal: Parked cars, tea kiosks, people playing cards, junk buyers segregating their daily acquisitions— one can find almost everything in the 50 ‘Bike Stations’ that have come up in the city – barring, of course, the bikes. To one, who is ignorant about the term, ‘Bike Stations’ are the part of infrastructure of Bhopal municipal corporation’s much-touted, hi-tech public bike sharing (PBS) project. The project was envisaged in 2011. It took four long years for the municipal body just to float tenders for selecting a private operator to run it. The bids were processed and in 2015 the contract was awarded. The project was to kick start from New Year this year.
However, the New Year is already almost six months old and barring the bike stations, which are being put to ingenious uses by the people, pretty nothing has been done for execution of the project. The stations are just bare structures and the facilities for docking of bikes, terminals for recording the time of hiring and return of the bikes etc are yet to come up. By when it will be done is anybody’s guess, though the BMC’s spokesperson is brimming with enthusiasm. “It will become functional from the next month”, he says. But the state of preparedness does not inspire confidence, especially given the hi-tech nature of the project – what with computer-fitted, GPS-enabled bikes, android and iOS apps.
Last-mile connectivity
The stations would cover the ‘catchment area’ of the BRT. This will ensure that the first and last mile connectivity to people living in the catchment area is provided for. Importance will be given to place stations near important commercial, cultural, educational, administrative, and residential and tourist attraction points in the catchment area.
