Some good news for cycle lovers of the city. Cycles will soon start running on three stretches of the city – CTO to Summerhill, Chotta Shimla to Shimla Club and Sanjauli to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC) – under a bicycle sharing scheme. The financial bids for this Smart City project were opened on Wednesday and a Bengaluru firm has been shortlisted for providing the service. “The project will be awarded to this Bengaluru firm in the first week of next month, following which the company could start building the required infrastructure,” said Nitin Garg, GM (Technical), Shimla Smart City. “The company is already running this service in cities like Bengaluru, Panchkula, etc.” Garg said the company would handle the operational part of the project. “Providing cycles, building docks, maintenance and manpower will be the company’s responsibility. And they will be paid Rs 1.31 lakh per cycle for a period of six years,” said Garg. To begin with, the company will deploy 150 cycles (with gear and gearless) on these three stretches. However, the number of cycles could be increased if people respond positively. Given that the selected stretches are on sealed roads — vehicular movement is restrictive on these stretches — the service will turn out to be quitebeneficial for people. “A one-sided trip will cost around Rs 5. The whole idea is to get more people into cycling. It’s a pollution free and healthy way to commute and we hope people will enjoy the ride,” said Garg. In the times of the pandemic, craze for cycling has already grown tremendously in the city – cycle vendors are claiming 300 per cent rise in the sales of cycles. With interest in cycling already at an alltime high, this Smart City project couldn’t have come at a better time.

Smart Cities Mission

In cities, the pressure of population on land, infrastructure, environment is massive and civic agencies are grappling with problems like clean air, mobility, sanitation, water, public safety, etc. Hence there is a need for developing a sustainable solution

What is a Smart City?
It is a city where there is a significant and extensive improvement in the physical, social, and economic infrastructure.

What is the need for the development of Smart Cities?

• Smart cities are needed to bring in growth and development in a country.
• Smart cities are needed for the development of the quality of life of people in the cities.
• If the quality of life of the people is improved in cities, then naturally the city will attract more people and thereby more investments.

Smart Cities Mission – Government of India

• GoI launched the 100 smart cities mission in 2015.
• The objective is to integrate city functions, utilize scarce resources more efficiently, and improve the quality of life of citizens.
• To improve safety and security.
• To improve the efficiencies of municipal services.
• The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is at the core of enhancing the city’s liveability, workability, and sustainability.
• The Ministry of Urban Development has identified 24 key areas that cities must address in their ‘smart cities’ plan.
• Of these 24 key areas, 3 are directly related to water and 7 are indirectly related to water – Smart-metre management, leakage identification, preventive maintenance, and water quality modeling.
• Smart Cities Mission is one of the mechanisms that will help operationalize the nationwide implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) priorities like poverty alleviation, employment, and other basic services.