Pune: Private players are keen to teach Puneites the lost art of cycling, but the poor infrastructure, lack of planning and inadequate measures have hampered their plans. Moreover, the traffic planners are in deep slumber. Recently, the private car player Zoomcar, after success in other cities, has introduced ‘Rent a Cycle’ scheme in Pune.
Regular cyclists have welcomed this concept of sharing a cycle, but have raised questions about safety and infrastructure in the city. Sujit Patwardhan of NGO Parisar said, “For past five years there has been a steady rise in number of people using cycles as their mode of transport. It is excellent that the private players are coming up with the cycle sharing concept. But I doubt its success as we have no proper connectivity for
cycle tracks.” The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has constructed a few cycle tracks but these are not interconnected. Patwardhan added, “The cycle tracks should be dedicated lanes for cyclists and must be maintained by the PMC.”
Cycle enthusiast Ajit Abhyankar said, “Cycle tracks are misused to park vehicles. Secondly there is no traffic sense among people and parking charges for four-wheelers should be hiked, so that people will stop using cars. The parking lots should be connected with the cycle tracks, so that after parking the vehicle, we can rent a cycle and move on.”
PMC Chief Engineer of Road Department Shrinivas Bonala was reluctant to talk on this issue. He said, “The cycle track plan will not be discussed with the media until it is discussed in the General Body.”
According to the scheme, a person can rent a cycle for Re 1 and roam around 30 km. Agam Garg, Zoomcar Business Head is hopeful about the success of the scheme. He said, “If people are given the cycle sharing option, I am sure many would turn to this mode of transport.”
“We have started our services from societies of Pimple Saudagar, Wakad, Vishal Nagar and Tathawade areas and have got a good response. Along with Pune, we have services at Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. In a week’s time over 2,000 cycles will be rolled out on the road. Each cycle is mounted with a GPRS tracking system and will be unlocked with the help of a QR code,” he said.
