Rides not free anymore, user count dips sharply

Chandigarh, September 29

The daily count of cycle rides has halved after the facility was made chargeable under the public bike-sharing project in the city.

Smart Bike’s city operations head Abhinandan Malhotra said, “When the facility was free, around 3,000 to 3,500 rides were being taken in a day. Now, the number has come down to around 1,500.”

A fee of Rs10 plus the GST is charged for using a bicycle for half an hour.

More cycles are visible at docking stations these days. At some points, the company has increased the number of bikes having realised the sites were often without cycles.

Rides under the public bike-sharing project became chargeable from September 21. Earlier, the rides were made free after users faced issues in locking and unlocking bikes using the Smart Bike App. The company was asked to fix all problems by September 12. — TNS