Soon, travel from Santacruz to MU Kalina campus on e-bikes
MUMBAI: In the coming months, students travelling to Mumbai University’s campus in Kalina can rent electric bikes from Santacruz station for the two-kilometre commute. Along with this, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials are identifying other wards in the city and suburbs where the usage or footfall is high.
Ashok Khairnar, assistant commissioner of BMC’S H-east ward that looks after areas around Bandra East, Khar and Santacruz East, said, “We have tentatively identified Santacruz station to Kalina campus of Mumbai University as one of the locations for the operation of electric bikes owing to the footfall.”
Khairnar further said, “We are also contemplating another route between Bandra East station to Bandra -Kurla Complex (BKC). Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is also working on a similar initiative. We will work out on these two locations for now.”
The MMRDA, had earlier this month, announced connecting
BKC with Kurla and Bandra station by appointing a private firm for operating of electric bikes. As per the plan, the pilot project will be implemented for connecting different areas within BKC in the coming days. A BMC official from L Ward that looks after Kurla said, “The plan has been under discussion to connect Kurla station with BKC, but for it, we will require land for parking these electric bikes. There is a space crunch at Kurla station, while we have not faced space issues at Santacruz and Bandra station. If the space issue is sorted, then we can explore running of electric bikes between Kurla station and
Kalina Campus of Mumbai University.”
The BMC had last year drafted a policy on renting of electric bikes in the city to have 1 lakh electric bikes in the coming years.
The initiative has taken off with a start of 5,000 or 10,000 e-bikes. There will be free parking for these bikes at designated slots, and e-bikes operators need not share operational revenue with them, apart from the revenue earned from advertisements. Operators will have to develop a mobile application wherein those wanting to rent e-bikes can check-in and checkout.