Chandigarh rising towards Cycling: K K Yadav
Chandigarh, August 20:- Sh. K.K. Yadav, IAS, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Chandigarh and Chief Executive Officer, Chandigarh Smart City Ltd. said that the people of Chandigarh are adopting cycling very fast these days and appeals the citizens to participate in Cycle for Change Challenge, which aims at to make city dwellers cycling friendly and to increase the “Zero Carbon Mobility” so that the environment can be protected.
While sharing key points about the challenge, he said that this challenge has been started under the Smart City Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Government of India which aims at promotion of more cycling in the country.
He said that in this pandemic period, the craze of the cycling is increasing in Chandigarh. Be it doctors, officers, professors or professionals or the general public, all kinds of people go cycling on these days which is proving to be very effective not only for their good health but also for the environment in city.
He said instead of using public transport, people can help in maintaining social distancing by bringing bicycle in their daily routine. They can commute regularly through bicycle if their office is within 2 to 3 km of the house, and if it is up to 5 km, they can use a bicycle to go to the office on alternate days. Apart from this, people can also use the bicycle to go to any nearby store or park.
He said that the average Air Quality Index (AQI) of Chandigarh reached the level of 39 in a complete lockdown of 40 days which is now running beyond 100. One reason for the Air Quality Index to be better was decrease in the vehicles on the roads. So to make Chandigarh’s climate cleaner and better, we need to adopt cycles.
By taking part in the survey, people can also bring Chandigarh city to better cities for cycling. Citizen can fill in the online form on our link https://forms.gle/bTUCLjcjfq5uiziq5. There are a number of feedbacks asked that you have to answer, like how you used to travel before Covid-19, what problems you have to face while cycling in the city and so on. This feedback form can improve things in the city which somehow got ignored.
He said that today there is heavy traffic inside the city, but having dedicated cycle track of about 190 km inside the city. Hardly any other city would be having such a long dedicated bicycle track. Most of the tracks are newly made out of which more than 95 percent dedicated tracks are in good condition and the rest will be made in good condition shortly. In North India, cycling becomes very difficult in summers, but another important feature of Chandigarh is that most of the tracks are under the shade of trees, which are easily accessible even during summer, added Mr. Yadav.
He said that cycling is a better exercise, which keeps users physically fit. After Covid-19, the number of people running cycles in the city increased significantly. Citizens will keep themselves fit by cycling, as well as they can save money of petrol or diesel and also protect the environment.
He further said that Chandigarh Smart City is coming up with a project of “Public Bicycle Sharing”, in which 617 Cycling stations are to be built in the city that would have more than 5000 cycles, which will be made available in every corner of the city. City residents can take a bicycle from any place and can leave it at other stations and for this, very low rent will have to be paid. This project will be based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. We hope that more and more people will like this project and will participate in India Cycle for Change Challenge, he added.
