Chennai Corporation plans to Deploy 5000 Bicycles for Commuters
Reportedly with COVID-19 making people weary over the use of public transport, the Greater chennai Corporation (GCC) has decided to use this as an opportunity to push people to switch to bicycling. The urban governing body is planning to deploy around 5,000 bicycles across the city in an attempt to encourage people to use cycles more. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recently issued an advisory to all states and union territories on june 2 around urban transport services in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The document provides short, medium and long-term advisories to “make new interventions to provide people a safe, technology driven, self-reliant and less polluting urban transit system.” The short-term strategy shall be adopted within six months while the medium-term pointers should be adopted by one year.
The advisory also discusses the steps needed to restart public transport systems in urban areas in the country, specifically regarding the impact caused by COVID-19 pandemic. This includes encouraging non-motorised modes of transport (NMT) and touchless payment options using UPI apps. chennai adopted the NMT Policy in 2014 with an aim to boost walking and cycling in the city and to create safe spaces and infrastructure, including footpaths and cycle tracks. In fact, recently, the GCC under its Smart City project inaugurated a Pedestrian Plaza in the busy Pondy Bazaar in T nagar as part of its effort to encourage NMT. The plaza is a part of the GCC’s efforts to construct a wide footpath on the sides of the busy road to help citizens walk and shop.
Several countries around the world have taken initiatives to promote NMT in light of the pandemic. For example, italy has converted 22 miles of streets in Milan to cycle lanes while new zealand has added 17 kilometres of temporary bike lanes to promote use of bicycles. Smitha Sadasivan from the Disability Legislation Unit, vidya Sagar, told TNM that though suggestions were presented to the GCC earlier, it did not progress any further. She said “When GCC started talking about the Smart City project and smart bikes, disability groups suggested that the smart bikes or bicycles need to be accessible as well. They agreed at that juncture but after that no conversation happened about accessible transport systems as part of the Smart City project".