Bicycle sharing: 'Directorate of Urban Land Transport' to issue permits
Bengaluru: In view of the surge in population by 2031, the State Government had announced in the Budget 2017-18 to take up bicycle sharing scheme (PBS) in select clusters in Bengaluru.
The docking stations identified by Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) will now act as parking hubs which multiple operators can use for operating their bicycles.
The directorate has now received the government order to administer permits to put PBS in place.
According to the Special Officer, DULT N. Murali Krishna, “Due to the interest shown by the private players in investing in the capital and operations of running a fourth generation (dockless technology) system, we will be taking the role of facilitating and regulating the system when it matures.
The system will be technology neutral and the operators shall be allowed to bring in systems they feel is feasible for their operations.”
Revealing further he added, "Under this system the operators interested to provide PBS service shall submit an application to the DULT indicating the number of cycles they would operate in the city and the list of parking locations they would utilize for their operations.
A permit fee/infrastructure development fee shall be prescribed for issuing of the permit to the qualified operator based on the scale of the operations desired by the operator."
However, the permit as stated by the DULT would be valid for a specified period of time, subject to the operator fulfilling the terms and conditions of the permit. The permit may be extended as per the prevailing terms and conditions at that point of time.
Krishna went on to say that DULT is also planning to lay supportive cycling infrastructure to complement the PBS system and improve safety of cyclists.
On January 19, in a prospective operator’s meet the prospective applicants deliberated and clarified doubts and gave suggestions on the permit process. DULT has set the deadline on February 7 as the last date for the operators to send in their permit process.
