chandigarh
The Smart Bike Mobility Pvt Ltd, the company catering to the Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) project, has announced to add a fleet of 500 more smart bikes (cycles) to the existing public bike sharing (PBS) system in Chandigarh. Despite facing several challenges, the company decided to increase the fleet in order to promote the venture, claimed the company representatives.
“The company has procured 500 new smart bikes and will be deploying these at various dockings stations this week. This is to make up for the 1,400 bikes which have been damaged by miscreants, are under repair or stolen,” said Animesh, general manager, operations and marketing of the project. He further revealed that the company is also planning to relaunch the e-bikes (operated with battery) for local residents.
Earlier, the Chandigarh PBS project implemented and operated by SmartBike has been adjudged as the best among 100 smart cities in India by the Government of India and this award was presented in September 2023. However, the company faced a lot of challenges in terms of saving these bikes from damage.
“Owing to large-scale vandalism and thefts, the company incurred losses of over Rs 3.5 crore. We have requested for installation of CCTV surveillance at about 50 vulnerable stations to which the CSCL has agreed. Despite availability of funds of over Rs 75 lakh from the cash award given by the Centre for promoting cycling, the installation of CCTVs is yet to take place,” claimed Animesh.
The SMPL promoted Smart Bike Tech Pvt Ltd (STPL) had invested about Rs 30 crore in the project. “We carried a study where we found encroachments at 198 dock stations. The main earning is from advertising, but it is already being used for the maintenance of the bikes,” he claimed.