Chandigarh has evolved among the 25 Indian cities shortlisted for the second stage of the nation-wide Cycle4Change challenge, organised under the Smart Cities Mission.

As many as 107 cities had participated in the challenge aimed at making cities cycling-friendly post-Covid. Among them, 41 cities had given their proposal and strategy presentation for evaluation by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

The Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) had initiated strategic action plans based on three broad principles of social media engagement, community involvement and implementation of pilot intervention at Sukhna Lake and in Sector 36 to promote cycling.

Several activities were taken up in the last six months such as free cycle repair workshop, online perception survey, pilot launch of the public bicycle sharing system (PBSS), cycle rallies, cycle-themed photo and video competitions, and lighting of cycle tracks among other initiatives.

CSCL also initiated the Draft Bicycling Plan for the city to be taken up by the Healthy Street Cell and to be finalised by the apex committee headed by the Chandigarh municipal commissioner. Now, the city is further preparing for the second round to give a presentation to the jury to get selected among 11 cities to receive scale-up support of ?1 crore.

The CSCL has already constructed a dedicated 200-km cycle track in the city and more will be constructed to connect the periphery and the city’s industrial areas. Chandigarh is also gearing up for the launch of the first phase of the PBSS with 1,250 bicycles at 155 docking stations spread across the city.

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