BMC, smart city officials plan to revive cycling tracks on specific roads

Bhubaneswar: After three failed attempts between 2018 and 2020, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) are gearing up to reintroduce non-motorised transport (NMT) or bicycle tracks on specific city roads.

Learning from past mistakes, instead of major arteries and mass cycling, specific clusters, now mini-arteries and sub-arteries will be used where uninterrupted cycling is feasible and where last-mile connectivity through cycles is required.

“At those specific places and stretches only, tracks will be developed where cycling is enjoyable without impediments. While invigorating NMT, we will also put a lot of emphasis on pedestrian movement, under which stretches will be made walking-friendly. Involving various institutions is also very important to make cycling tracks a success,” said BMC commissioner Chanchal Rana.

BMC, which signed an MoU with the Centre for Green Mobility (CGM), will ensure that cycle docks are created on arteries and sub-arteries where non-motorised transport is feasible. Those small or big stretches will be free from vehicular movement, maybe for a particular period of time, officials said.

“The partner agency will conduct a survey, engage with institutions, and select places and stretches where cycling is possible. Sufficient groundwork will be done, like training and exposure visits of officials to places where cycling tracks are a success. Besides, road and track design will be completely revamped, and there will be involvement of institutions and different categories of people, making cycles accessible in the easiest way possible,” a BSCL officer said.

The centre will also assist BMC during pre-bid meetings, manage (monitor and supervise) their work, and coordinate with them regularly for any and every requirement under the project.

“We are not going to hurry with the implementation. It is a slow process for people to develop the habit of cycling,” a BSCL officer said.

From a ridership of around 600 in the pre-Covid period, the number of cycle users came down to less than 200 in 2022. By 2023, 1,650 cycles were declared in operable condition, with 350 under maintenance.

The cycles had started to gather rust and were abandoned in places other than the docks. Besides, software and technical glitches made users refrain from hiring and picking the cycles from the docks. Several cycles and their parts were stolen, and some went missing.