DDA’s bicycle-sharing plan hangs fire, tender re-issued

NEW DELHI: Four years after the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) conceived the ambitious bicycle sharing project for Dwarka, the land owning agency is still struggling to implement the work in the planned sub-city as it has floated the tender for the project a second time after the company initially awarded the contract refused to undertake the project.

DDA officials said the project, which was to start by March this year, is likely to be implemented by the end of this year.

A senior DDA official aware of the development said, “The firm which was awarded the work last year has refused to do the project. We had to again invite bids for the project in February. A firm has been selected and we are in the process of finalising it. The plan is to implement the project by the end of this year.”

In 2018, DDA conceived the plan of starting the bicycle sharing project in Dwarka, one of the three residential hubs planned by it. The land-owning agency planned two projects — introduce cycle sharing and develop 16km of cycling tracks along the Metro corridor.

According to the initial cycle sharing plan, DDA decided to introduce 2,000 bikes and develop 250 docking stations around markets, Metro stations and residential areas in the subcity.

It invited bids in 2019 but didn’t receive any response. In 2020, it increased the number of cycles to 5,000.

“Implementation of the project was delayed due to the pandemic. There is no change in the tender conditions. The project will be implemented in a phased manner and 5,000 cycles will be pressed into service by the end of this year,” said the official.

Meanwhile, DDA officials said work on construction of the 16km cycle tracks is nearing completion.

The cycle tracks will connect Dwarka sectors 5,11, 12, 13, 14 and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) in Sector 3. The tracks will be developed along Metro corridors (Sector 12 and 13), big parks and arterial roads, said an official.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT WAS DELAYED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC. THERE IS NO CHANGE IN THE TENDER CONDITIONS