Covid puts brakes on smart cycle revenue in Chennai

CHENNAI: The vendor operating the city’s cycle-sharing project, facing a revenue crunch due to the Covid-induced lockdowns, has been allowed by Greater Chennai Corporation to put up advertisement hoardings at all cycle stations.
While there are 500 stations, Smartbike Mobility Pvt Ltd has deployed 950 cycles across 89 stations under the smart city project.The corporation has not pumped any money into the project, nor does it get a share of the revenue. But, the space for setting up cycle stations is free.
Smartbike, which has so far pumped in 17.68 crore as capital expenditure and 2.75 crore as operating expenses, has earned a revenue of only 21.57 lakh from February 2019 till 2021, official data shows. This is despite more than 41,000 registrations on the mobile application and 2.48 lakh completed rides. The project managers say this response has been encouraging.
The lockdowns induced by the still raging Covid-19 pandemic has caused a drop in the daily rentals and hence rent collection, the corporation said. Therefore, Smartbike requested the civic body if it could earn more revenue by selling back panels of the cycle stations as advertisement space. The company also requested a waiver of the licence fee charged by the civic body for this. The company may earn 20 lakh per month from the advertisement space in the 500 stations at 100% occupancy.
After discussions, the civic body agreed to the proposal of Smartbike which will be allowed to use the space as advertisement till February 2026.
However, this comes with conditions. The advertisement hoardings should not cover cumulatively more than 14 sq m in all 500 stations.
Approval would have to be taken for every advertisement hoarding from the corporation. Logos of the corporation and Chennai Smart City Ltd should be clearly visible on the panel. Smartbike would also need to abide by all terms and conditions mentioned in the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act.
According to the corporation, this is a one-time exemption to make the project successful and viable and promote cycling among the city's residents. Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi has approved this decision.