The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Thursday approved the Comprehensive Bicycle master plan, which entails the development of 470 km of cycle tracks in Pune and envisages a public bicycle sharing scheme to promote their use in the city. According to the plan, the PMC would appoint private companies to start the public bicycle sharing scheme. Under the scheme, one lakh bicycles would be made available for public use on rent. Bicycle stands would be set up in different parts of the city so that residents can commute around Pune. Residents would be able to rent a bicycle at one place and travel to another place. They would travel to the bicycle stand nearest to their destination, where they would deposit it. The civic administration proposal on the comprehensive bicycle master plan was approved by the ruling BJP, but opposition parties had protested against it. The plan was passed by the BJP with a majority but it wasn’t discussed in the general body nor were its details shared with the opposition. “We had no intention of passing the proposal without discussion, but after the chaotic situation created by opposition parties in the general body meeting, it was approved by voting but was not discussed,” said Mayor Mukta Tilak. She said the proposal was in Pune’s interest and has public support. “The decision would pave the way for the use of bicycles in the city and the plan would be implemented in phases,” Tilak said. However, the civic administration had sought expression of interest for appointing companies to implement the public sharing bicycle scheme before the policy was approved in the PMC’s general body. BJP leader Srinath Bhimale said, “I don’t think any political party is opposed to the comprehensive bicycle master plan including the introduction of the sharing scheme. The plan has been pending and it needs to start now,” he said. He refused to comment on why the PMC sought expressions of interest before the policy was discussed in the PMC. Congress leader Arvind Shinde said the PMC would spend Rs 350 crore in developing the cycle tracks, but private companies would profit from this through the public bicycle sharing scheme. “The PMC policy says that it would not have any control over the rent to be charged by private companies running the public bicycle sharing scheme. This means they would earn profit from it while the civic body would make investment in constructing tracks,” he added. The Congress leader alleged that the BJP had passed the proposal without holding a discussion because they were under pressure from the Chief Minister. Earlier, a faction of BJP corporators, too, had opposed the Comprehensive Bicycle master plan in the meeting of general body but senior party leaders intervened and convinced them to support the civic administration’s proposal of the master plan. The PMC had developed cycle tracks on at least 70 km of roads developed under JNNURM but because of poor maintenance and encroachment, the infrastructure remained unused. However, the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (PSCDCL) took the lead in implementing the bicycle sharing scheme by introducing it at the Pune university campus last week.
