Bhubaneswar: Now, the No. 1 Smart City Bhubaneswar plan is to spread the idea and propagate the love for cycles, cycling and stay healthy for a greener and better urban conglomerate.
Controlling harmful emissions, causing less air pollution and last but not the least, promoting a healthy lifestyle, Public Bi-cycle Sharing (PBS) system would be the answer to the city’s green transport possibility and vision, as there would be many citizens who are eager to use this alternative.
This will also act as a complimentary service to provide greener first and last mile connectivity to city’s proposed modernized bus services.
What started as awareness during city’s weekend fest ‘Patha Utsav’ in the recent past, has now taken a new dimension as the project was part of Bhubaneswar Smart City Proposal.
With this in mind, the city administration has put more stress on the use of cycles as the means of transport` to remain smart. The Smart City Proposal has categorically stressed on development of a non-motorised, green and healthy city transport network.
In today’s high-level meeting at the State Secretariat, Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation presented a roadmap how to go about the PBS and make it user-friendly and effective.
While a dedicated cycle lane will be developed as part of a futuristic 120 km major road under the Complete Street Plan, in the first phase there will be a 40-km stretch and the two main focus areas will be Smart District and Info City areas, hereafter referred as the core area.
It can be mentioned here that without a dedicated cycle track in the city, the cyclists always remain vulnerable to speeding light and heavy vehicles. So as per the provisions of the Complete Street Guidelines, the cycle track will have safety as a major concern for the cyclist.
In the first phase, 3,500 bicycles shall be deployed in remotely controlled parking spaces located in every 400-500 metre distance within the core area. All the cycles shall have remote locking and unlocking facilities. In case of the deficit of cycles in a particular zone, cycles would be transported to the deficit zone from the surplus area.
To provide better transit linkages with the existing city bus services the parking spaces shall be placed near bus stops. With this, a person can come to a major junction to take a bus and after the mode to ensure first mile (home to the bus stop) and last mile connectivity (public transport to home).
The Phase-I plan of PBS will include Janpath, Cuttack-Puri Road, Jagamara-Sundarpada Road, Bidyut Marg, Airport-Nandankanan Road, Sachivalaya Marg and National Highway.
