Chinese company submits bid to operate cycle sharing system

Chennai: Commuters in the city may get Chinese touch in Chennai’s cycle sharing project if all goes well for the Chinese company that submitted its bids to secure the multi-crore cycle sharing project.

“An Indian company and a Chinese company have shown interest to take over the project. Evaluation of bids are underway and the suitable company will be selected soon,” a Chennai Corporation higher official said.

According to the official, the civic body had finished feasibility study on implementing the cycle sharing system with the help of a private consultant.

Even though 378 cycle-parking slots have been identified and a total of 4,976 bicycles have been considered in the feasibility study, it would be left to the service provider to increase the number of cycles and parking slots, the official added.

“The corporation will not spend the money to implement the cycle sharing project. All the investments will be made by the potential private firm. The project will be accorded to the firm that fixes minimum rent for the cycles. We are trying to roll out the project before April end,” said the official.

Meanwhile, the Chennai Corporation has planned to set up cycle sharing slots near colleges, schools, metro rail stations, bus terminus, parks and other recreational areas, thus providing last mile connectivity. “To prevent the theft, all the cycles will be fitted with GPS devices. We can monitor the whereabouts of a particular cycle and who had taken the cycle from parking slot,” the official added.

Although the civic body had decided to use QR codes to lock and unlock the cycles, some cycles would have the conventional locking system to help users who lack smartphones.

“After the implementation, commuters may simply scan the codes to unlock the cycles. We will also provide smart cards to pay the rent,” the official added.
 When asked about the bicycle-friendly pathways in the road, the top brass official said that the civic body has created bicycle tracks at Sivananda Road, DGS Dinakaran Road and others. “Markings have been made at select roads in the city. As of now, a total of cycle tracks for 17 km have been created at a cost of '36 lakh. This will be expanded,” he said.

It is also learnt that the Chennai Corporation is planning to install road separators wherever the road width permits. “The separators would help to curtail the motorists entering the cycle track. At narrow roads we could only able to mark the tracks and provide signage,” the official added.  Rents will be collected on the hourly basis from the users.