Wheels of change move slow in Chandigarh
Gaurav Kanthwal
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 29
The wheels of change are moving a bit slowly towards making Chandigarh a smart city when it comes to the use of bicycle as an alternative mode of commuting.
The Chandigarh Cycles4Change Challenge, an initiative of the Smart Cities Mission, has drawn just 400 responses to a survey being conducted to gauge the public opinion about cycling in the city.
Smart City plan
As many as 5,000 bicycles will be made available on hourly rent basis at 617 docking points in the city under the Smart Cities Mission.
Although the last date for the survey is December 14, it will be a tough task to get 10,000 responses, approximately one per cent of the population of the city, to get a desirable set of responses for actionable input.
Plans are afoot to present the survey in Hindi or Punjabi to the respondents besides in English.
NP Sharma, Chief General Manager, Chandigarh Smart Cities Limited (CSCL), said, “People may have different reasons for not taking part in the survey. The actual response to the campaign will be seen in a pilot project where 100 cycles will be put up at 10 docking stations on rental basis.”
Sharma confirmed that by the end of October, the CSCL would launch the project in the city in which residents could rent a cycle from one of the 10 docking stations.
Officials also hope to give an impetus to the campaign in October when a two-day event, including a cycle rally and a workshop on cycle maintenance, will be held from October 10.
Chandigarh is one of the 95 cities in the country taking part in the challenge designed to make city dwellers cycling friendly and to increase the zero carbon mobility.
Residents using cycle as a form of exercise may be a common sight in the city, pedaling to work is not.
Radheysham Shukla, a caterer in a Zirakpur hotel, said, “Those going to or coming from duty on a bicycle late at night have to brave anti-social elements, non-functional street lights and road rage.”
Cycling enthusiasts, who are part of multiple cycling groups and have been using this mode of transportation while going to work, said there were not even 200 persons in the city who commute on bicycle. “If you leave out the underprivileged sections, there are not many,” added Vinod Kumar, a Sector 37 resident.
It will be interesting to see how the authorities convert a fad fuelled by a pandemic into a mass movement.
Anvi Mahajan (19), who is preparing for medical entrance exams, said, “Most of the cycle tracks in the inner city are in good condition but there is definitely a scope for improvement in the outer areas.”
