Mumbai readies for national cycle challenge
MUMBAI: The city may soon experiment with setting up efficient cycling infrastructure across Mumbai. The civic body has registered for the Central government’s India Cycles4change challenge and is looking at implementing a pilot project by October.
Launched in July, the challenge aims to inspire cities to implement quick, cyclefriendly interventions in the wake of Covid-19, with the support of citizens and experts. At present, 95 cities have registered for the challenge, including Thane, Kalyan, Pune, Pimpri-chinchwad, Nashik, and Nagpur in Maharashtra.
Organisations like World Resources Institute, Smart Commute Foundation (SCF), and Project Mumbai are assisting the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the challenge. “We had our first meeting on Sunday, during which we decided to undertake a survey of how Mumbaiites travel and also identify roads where pop-up lanes can be introduced,” said Firoza Suresh, Mumbai’s bicycle mayor.
Linking Road, Carter Road, Lokhandwala back-road, Ncpa-chowpatty, and Juhu 10th Road have already been shortlisted for the pilot project, and traffic and civic authority permissions are awaited.
A BMC official, who is coordinating with various organisations for the program, said, “We are working on creating a cycle track along the Tansa pipeline, and cycling as a lastmile connectivity option from the upcoming Metro stations is also being planned.”
According to the Central government’s Smart Cities Mission, in stage one, cities will have to implement at least one pilot intervention. The mission will then shortlist 11 cities that will receive support to scale-up their plans with the aid of national and international experts.
Parin Visariya, senior urban development associate at ITDP India Programme, the knowledge partner for the challenge, said the main aim is to implement quick cycling interventions. “We have sent surveys to cities to understand the state of cycling and hurdles faced,” she said.