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Bicycles hit rough road in capital city

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Few takers!: Trendy bi-cycles parked in front of a coaching centre in Berhampur. —

BHUBANESWAR: Discovering a bicycle shop is not everybody’s cup of tea in the capital city. With streets of Bhubaneswar getting flooded with motorcycles and cars, bicycle has lost its character of a ‘frequently used carrier’ here and cycle stores are also vanishing fast.

There has been hardly any addition to bicycle stores during last two decades as number of wholesale agencies operating in the city could not be more than six. In busy roads of the city, cycles are disappearing from the scene and being pushed to semi-urban localities.

Spurt in cheap transportation mediums like auto-rickshaws and people’s easy access to loans for buying motorcycles are two most important reasons for the eclipse of this cheapest and pollution-free means of conveyance.

J. K. Agarwal, proprietor of Hindustan Cycle Store in Bapuji Nagar, one of the oldest shops in the city, said: “The sale of standard cycles, used by working class, has gone down by 75 per cent. The same space has been taken over by fancy cycles, mainly used by children.”

“Life is becoming fast. People seem to be in no mood to waste their time using the bicycles when auto-rickshaws provide them faster service,” Mr. Agarwal said.

The scene in different cycle stands in the city tells the same story. At any point of time, one could find more bikes than bicycles in those stands. “Motorcycles have outnumbered bicycles here. The ratio of bicycles to motorcycles has undergone a drastic change in favour of the latter,” said Subash Chandra Nayak, a caretaker of cycle stand near railway station here.

He said bicycles were not at all extinct but not used regularly. Although city planners have dedicated lanes along the newly built road from Airport to Infocity for bicycles, the track is mostly used by pedestrians and motorcyclists.

However, bicycles have not lost all their sheen in other two cities such as Berhampur and Cuttack.

Berhampur could be the only city in the State where ‘cycle rental service’ is still in existence.

Similarly, Cuttack being one of the oldest cities of the State has kept its tradition. People use bicycles to move through narrow lanes and by-lanes. A number of stands filled with bicycles could be found in the silver city that indicates the cheaper means of transportation has not vanished.

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