The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Setting the wheels in motion

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Monday, Jun 27, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Setting the wheels in motion

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: A slew of ambitious projects to encourage cycling in the city, which include bicycle-friendly streets, have been announced here.

On Saturday, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and city authorities announced plans for nearly 50 km of cycle-friendly streets in Jayanagar, 7 km of dedicated cycle lanes in Madiwala, and cycle tracks for the Central Business District (M.G. Road area), Indiranagar, R.T. Nagar, Koramangala, RMV extension and Malleswaram. The problem for cyclists in urban areas, S.K. Lohia, Director of Urban Transport, said, was with both “image” and “convenience”. “Convenience implies the infrastructure present for cyclists as well as the availability of bicycles. The image issue is that cycling is called ‘poor man's transport'. We would like to change that image by adopting the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission model, which has worked well in changing people's mindset about travelling by bus,” he said.

K.R. Niranjan, BBMP Special Commissioner, said Rs. 2.5 crore would be spent to develop cycling tracks at Jayanagar. DULT Commissioner Manjula V. added, “Funds are not a problem while executing the projects as a State-level corpus fund of Rs. 60 crore has been set up.”

K.R. Sreenivas, the Managing Director of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, said there was a proposal to allow for parking of bicycles in the nine traffic and transit management centres and 25 bus stations across the city.

The public could use the bicycles to travel to and from the station to their house, improving last mile connectivity.

However, to some cyclists, this is old news in a new package. Brijesh Nair, a cycling enthusiast, said, “Plans to encourage cycling have been proposed before and then scrapped.” Said Rohan Kini of Bangalore Bikers Club, “Cyclists want better infrastructure before they can think of cycling to work, while the government stalls the proposals until more cyclists get on to the street.”

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