VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has begun the ‘smart bike’ system and went to his office riding a smart bike from the cycle parking place to Block 1 in the Secretariat on Wednesday.
Addressing the occasion, Mr Naidu suggested the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) to establish a smart bike production unit in AP and instructed to arrange AC, solar panel and chairs in the cycle parking area.
The organisers explained to Mr Naidu how to unlock the smart bikes with a smart card and also the usage of the bikes. The CRDA officials explained to the Chief Minister about the three smart bike stands with 24 smart bikes. The smart bike basket even carries a helmet. CRDA commissioner Ch. Sridhar explained the project and mentioned about the Andhra Bank financial aid of '30 lakh for the project.
All-India Bicycling Federation chairman D.V. Manohar shared about importing bikes from Germany and sought permission from the government to launch an assembling unit in Amaravati. He even suggested to organise smart bike races in the state.
On the other side, the Chief Minister expressed his satisfaction on the design and construction of the bike stand in the Secretariat, and instructed the All-India Bicycles Federation to introduce smart bikes in Visakhapatnam, Vijaya-wada and Tirupati.
The CM even gave instructions to the CRDA Commissioner to pursue the idea of introducing these smart bikes between Guntur and Vijayawada, along with proposals of establishing assembling units.
The organisers explained about establishing smart bike stands at the bus station outside the Secretariat in block II and V.
They further explained that any employee or visitor can register their names and attain a membership smart card to unlock the bike. The bikes can even be managed through an app and the details will be displayed on the screens arranged at the bike stations.
At present, these bikes can be used free of cost and in the future will be chargeable based on the hiring time.
