Cycles to bridge last mile connectivity in city

Next week, the Corporation’s cycle sharing project (under Smart Cities Mission) will be tendered out to a vendor, who can provide the service across the city. As many as 400 locations (near schools, colleges, railway and metro stations and other public spaces) have been identified and 5,000 cycles will be made available in the initial phase.

“This is to improve the last mile connectivity. Experiments by Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) and other private agencies have shown this concept has become popular across the city,” said a senior Corporation official, adding the funds for the capital and operational investment will be brought in by the service provider.

“The tender will be awarded to the service provider who will charge the least, per hour, per cycle. Based on the response to the initial phase, the service provider can increase the locations, based on demand,” added the official.

Private organisations such as Zoomcar have been experimenting with the concept, by offering cycle sharing in selected, controlled locations in the city, to ascertain the demand for such a service. Speaking to DT Next, Sreejith Hrishikesh, VP-Operations, Zoomcar, said that they had provided this service at Besant Nagar and IIT-Madras. “The first trial took place in Bessy and we had a great response, especially during the car-free Sundays. Then, we approached IIT-M, where the service is fully functional and has been running for a couple of months now. During this pilot, we saw around eight bookings per cycle per day and that translated into 1,000 bookings per day. It was not only the students who were using it but also the faculty and non-teaching staff. We are trying to work with IT Parks and other educational institutions, while trying to scale up in IIT-M,” he said.

Sreejith said the pilot proved that there is a demand for such a service. “The usage showed people used it for very short trip – average usage was around 15 minutes.

Cycle sharing is easy and pocket friendly, so there is definitely a demand,” he said.