Four Bengaluru-based youths ride high on success

Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service
Panchkula, August 25

Meet Bengaluru-based four youths, who left their IT jobs to start a public bike-sharing project. Launched as a start-up a year ago, they are now touching new heights and have become the owners of a company worth millions.

Directors of M/s Dharani Enterprises — Abhishek Dambhal, Sourav Jain, Brijesh and Shiv Kumar Angadi — all aged around 26, were earlier working in an IT company at an annual package of Rs 10 lakh.  While doing their job, side by side they also started a project of giving bikes on rent. After the concept became successful at some places, they decided to develop the project further, which could help reduce the pollution level in cities.

These youths have recently set up 20 stations in Panchkula with 200 bicycles at a cost of Rs 2.09 crore. Over 4,000 people, mostly youngsters, have registered with the Yaana app of the company and more than 1,100 people are taking rides daily.

Sourav Jain said in November 2017, they started a new venture with 60 cycles at Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra as a pilot project after getting permission from the Karnataka Government at an initial investment of Rs 10 lakh. He said they talked to officials of the National Institute of Technology in Surat from where they came to know about the smart city project launched by the Centre. Jain said after getting information about it, they applied for the tenders of bicycle-sharing projects in Bhubaneswar and Gwalior. He said they started a project in Bhubaneswar in 2018 and were about to start the same in Gwalior soon. He said the tender for 1,000 bicycles had been allotted to them in Tirupati also. He said at present, they were getting bicycles made in China, while its smart lock was being procured from Germany. He said they had themselves created the software, dashboard systems, applications and android systems. He said they would develop the technology for smart locks for bicycles soon. The specialty of these bicycles is that the fare is deducted only when the user brings it back to the stand.