Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) MD NVS Reddy announced on latest development regarding metro stations on Sunday. He said “HMRL, HCC and UN Habitat would set up around 300 bike stations and around 10,000 state-of-the-art bikes and e-bikes. With these users would be able to use their swipe card to utilise these facilities, make cycling a happy experience and make Hyderabad the largest Public Bike Sharing System in the world.”
Reddy flagged off the 2nd ‘Chak De India’ cycling event. The event was organised by Hyderabad Cycling Club (HCC) at Gachibowli in Hyderabad on Sunday. He said “HMR would be people-friendly, green global city with non-polluting bicycles and electric vehicles as first/last mile connectivity and exhilarating public spaces.”
Reddy said “it was time to realize that cities would have to be people-friendly. The MD appealed to corporate, participants and people of Hyderabad to support the cause and make cycling a habit to reduce the vehicular pollution and enhance the air quality of this historic and wonderful city and make it more eco-friendly.”
Chairman of HBC DV Manohar spoke to the reporters. He said that “the project is eco-friendly and aimed at considerably reducing the vehicle pollution. This project would also be the largest Public Bike Sharing (PBS) system of its kind in the world. The total cost of the project comes to around Rs 100 crore and would be raised from UN Habitat and other international organizations under climate fund and others.”
NVS Reddy said “time has come to discourage usage of cars and encourage cycling to reduce pollution and bring down carbon prints. Manohar said that state government is supportive of this unique project and passed orders in May this year nominating HMR as the nodal agency to work with HBC. Each bike costs around Rs.50, 000 while e-bike costs Rs 1 lakh. We are in touch with prospective funding agencies both in India and abroad for raising the required funds and also arranging the margin money from our side.”
HBC bike stations at Gachibowli and Necklace Road have transformed the city, resulting in more and more people taking to cycling. Yarwwod said that “future is not in the cars but in public transport system.”
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BY M. DIVYA SRI
