KMRL’s public bike sharing initiative to be back on track

KOCHI: Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) may restart its Public Bike Sharing (PBS) programme, one of its flagship non-motorised transport initiatives to facilitate last mile connectivity for Metro services, within a week.

“We may be able to start PBS scheme from six stations within a week’s time. We have also finalised on sponsors for maintenance of the cycles and cycle racks,” said the KMRL spokesperson.

Kochi Metro had first launched PBS on June 5, 2017 and the project ran for three months. It evoked good response with 1,388 people becoming members of the club out of which 718 actually used the bikes. But soon issues developed over the maintenance of cycle racks and cycles suffered, driving away users.

The KMRL’s project comes at a time when a large number of youngsters and elders have turned to cycling for reasons varying from health and fitness to environmental conservation. The city currently has a cycle track in Panampilly Nagar. Now, another one is being readied at General Hospital Road. Both have a length of 1km each.

The number of cycling clubs and cycle marathons has also shot up recently, reflecting on the influx of people resorting to cycling as a part of their lifestyle adapting to the urban life.

“Almost 40-50% of the people now buy bicycles to make it a part of their health and fitness regime. Doctors are progressively recommending cycling as the best exercise for their patients. Many users are medical doctors themselves. The awareness about the benefits of cycling has led to a spurt in the number of cyclers in the city,” said Gopal Shenoy, who has been running a bicycle outlet in the city for the past 61years.

Unlike earlier days, a large number of cycle buyers are middle-aged people, he said. “When motorbikes became popular, sale of bicycles had dipped, but recently it began to rise again due to the health benefits of the activity,” Shenoy added.

Youngsters have a newfound passion with cycling, according to Jaizn, a member of Sports Council of India and a cycling coach in the city.

“There is an annual 200% increase in the number of people participating in cycle-sports in our country. Within the city itself, there will be easily around 300 cyclists, the amateurs and professionals included,” Jaizn, who gives coaching for mountain and plain cycling, said.

Passion and health apart, a couple of riders also do it because of their love for environment. “Nowadays ‘going for a drive’ is a trendy thing, where people just hop on a car or a bike to just drive around for relaxing purposes. Amid this traffic and pollution, it would be really hard to relax during a drive, and moreover, the purposeless drive will contribute to more carbon excess to our atmosphere. Why not pick a cycle for the same, which would yield pacifying results and not cause environmental harm,” said Rowan Jose, a college student who uses cycle for commuting locally.



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