Bi‘cyclone’ to hit the city

With a novel aspiration, the Hyderabad Bicycling Club ( HBC), GHMC, APIIC and a few other civic bodies have come together to promote the concept of ‘cycle to work’. The idea was originally promoted by HBC which is now being materialised by the GHMC as they have developed a fully furnished bike station at Gachibowli. This bike station will be completely equipped with facilities like, snacks and beverages counter, rest rooms for women and men and 300 cycles (donated by the Hyderabad Metro Rail). It will also have landscaped parks on either side and also include a newly laid cemented approach roads. This bike station will be inaugurated on Sunday, by ESL Narasimhan, Governor.

The Governor will be accompanied by Manfred Neun, President European Cycling Federation, Dr Geeta Reddy, Minister for Major Industries, Maheedhar Reddy, Minister for Municipal Administration and Mohammed Majid Hussain, Mayor, GHMC. After the inauguration of the bike station the governor will flag-off a bicycling rally by the name of Bicyclone 2013. Speaking at a press conference D V Manohar, Chairman, HBC, said, “There will be over a 1000 cyclists present at the rally. We will have fully supported rides of 5, 10, 25 and 60 kms respectively. The riders will have all the facilities that they might require during the rally like water, first-aid and road-marshals.”

“Hyderabad has already reached the red-zone in terms of pollution levels. Cycling would help save fuel and burn calories. Such rallies should become a testament for people. It must encourage people to take up cycling to work initiative. We are in talks with a few companies and have asked them to give incentives to the techies who use bicycles to office. We want to take up more such works on mission mode,” said M T Krishna Babu, Commissioner, GHMC.

The GHMC has already devised all the cycling routes in the 60 kilometre track that has been identified in the Gachibowli-Hitec City corridor. The commissioner claims that they will be up for use in some time.

Though the project looks good on paper, D V Manohar claims that there is a lot of money that is spent on the maintenance of these bicycles. The HBC and GHMC are planning on innovative financial models to keep cycling enthusiasts and newcomers hooked to the pedal.