CHANDIGARH:With the bicycle sharing project being approved by the Smart City company of the Chandigarh administration, the UT urban planning department has finally prepared and submitted a list of more than 500 docket centres to the MC for the project. In its intensive report, UT tried its level best to get all prominent areas of the city connected with docket centres to facilitate cyclists.The docket centres were identified following a fresh survey conducted over a span of two months. The docket centres identified earlier were said to be nonfeasible. Therefore, the urban planning department conducted a location-wise survey to identify feasible docket centres.In the fresh survey, 33 docket centres have been identified in Sector 17. More than 20 docket centres will be set up on the north and south campus of PU in sectors 14 and 25. Since Sector 17 has a number of offices and shopping complex, where thousands of people come on a daily basis, a significant number of docket centres has been proposed in the survey.“Each docket station will have space for 10 to 20 bicycles, as per their availability. In the fresh survey, docket centres have been planned near bus queue stations of the city to ensure proper connectivity of bicycles with busxes to boost public transport”, sources said.Besides PU and Sector 17, the city will have 440 docket stations covering all prominent tourist places, office areas and educational institutes.Sources said the civic body authority has prepared a financial estimate of Rs 21.73 crore for the project, which will be awarded to the successful bidder quoting the highest annual concession fee.The primary objective of the public bicycle sharing project is to encourage last mile connectivity, thereby promoting low carbon mobility along with an efficient and effective public transit system.The secondary objective is to promote non-motorized transport by creating a public bicycle-sharing scheme to discourage motorized transport for short trips. Moreover, promotion of citizen’s health and inclusive space for pedestrian and cyclists alike and creating employment opportunities for youths in India have been key motives of the project in the city.Meanwhile, a meeting of the Smart City was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of home secretary Arun Kumar Gupta. Finance secretary Ajoy Kumar Sinha, general manager, Smart City NP Sharma, chief engineer of UT Mukesh Anand and MC chief engineer Manoj Kumar Bansal attended the meeting. The key issue of discussion was Integrated Command and Control System, where the feasibility of the project, its financial aspect, planning issues were discussed in detail. Sources said the project would cost around Rs 200 crore and now the RFP -request for proposal- will be asked from interested companies.

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