Go cycling in Chennai city
Posted on: 10/Oct/2017 12:00:45 PM
On observing the success of bicycle clubs in Trivandrum, Kochi, Infopark and Technopark, the Chennai Metro Rail Limited officials got the idea of setting up a bicycle club in 3 metro stations in Chennai city at Nehru Park, Shenoy Nagar and Vadapalani. Without any registration charge or fee, about 100 hours of free ride is given to the users under the condition that the cycle needs to be returned within 24 hours.
10 cycles per station
There are 10 cycles in each of these stations and people can gain access to them at any time of the day. For this, people should send an SMS and they will be shared with a number. This number can then be used to open the bicycle. The cycles will be kept locked with a locking system all of which are based on software.
Pioneering Chennai city
This is one-of-a-kind initiative where bicycle sharing model is functional in railway stations in India. Kerala has such clubs, however these are not attached to railway stations. Chennai holds the pride of being the very first city to operate bicycle club at railway stations.
What if you encounter a snag?
In case of any problem with the cycle during the ride, ground staff will be attending it. A strong network of mechanics is set up so that the users can leave the bicycle at the spot where the staff would rush to resolve the issue. At present, each station has 5 bicycles and there are 5 as buffers. At times when there is low supply of cycles, an alert will be sent through the software and staff would do top-up.
So far, there is no security or tracking system implemented in these cycles. Spending about Rs 2000 to safeguard the bicycle that it worth only Rs 3000 doesn’t make any sense. So the big question is the fear of bicycle getting stolen. However, the system functions with the confidence of handling such unforeseen incidents.
Once the pilot project becomes a success, the facility will be spread in the other areas as well. There is no kind of restriction imposed so far. Anybody can use this serve including those who don’t access the train facility. The best way to commute in the city is the combination of railways and bicycles, the city believes.
These bicycles are procured at very less rate than market price. The business works based on sponsor branding.
