Bhubaneswar Among Top-11 Cities In ‘India Cycles4Change’ Challenge; Bags Rs 1 Cr Award

Bhubaneswar: Odisha capital is among the 11 cities in the country to receive Rs 1 crore to scale up cycling events across the city.

The Temple City bagged India ‘Cycles4Change Challenge Stage-1 Award’ as it was adjudged among the top 11 Cycling Pioneers of the nation.

Earlier, the city had bagged two awards in the India Smart City Awards Contest on June 25.

Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Durga Shanker Mishra announced the winners at a virtual event held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The event also marked the release of the first Challenge report, and an Online Exhibition showcasing cities’ cycling journey.

Celebrating India’s cycling revolution over the last year, the Ministry launched an Online Exhibition showcasing the journey of the top 25 cities. The online exhibition can be viewed at https://smartnet.niua.org/indiacyclechallenge/online-exhibition-overview/

Meanwhile, fresh applications have been invited for Season Two of India Cycles4Change Challenge. All smart cities, capital cities of states/UTs and those with a population of over 5 lakh can send in their applications. The Season-2 will start from August.

CEO of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) Sanjay Kumar Singh Said, “We are going to promote cycling events regularly across the city during the second season and also popularise the Public Bicycle Sharing initiative among the public to increase the ridership.’’

CYCLE PROMOTION EVENTS IN CITY:

Under the India Cycles4Change initiative the Temple City has conducted a series of activities since 2020 October 9 and the pledge taking and gifting of bicycles was done at a special event near Sishu Bhawan Square. The activities were jointly conducted by BSCL and BMC.

Subsequently on October 16 a pledge taking session for safety of cyclists by auto association members was done at Powerhouse Square and another on October 23 at Smart Park Saheed Nagar. Similarly, several apartment complexes were also roped in to popularize the cyclathon events across the city and 21 such events were organized. On October 30 pledge taking by car aggregator Ola drivers was conducted and on November 6 a mini cyclathon was organized with a central theme of cancer awareness through the cycling event.

On November 13 under “gifting of bicycles’’ to 25 peer leaders (Pragati Sathis) as the community leaders (boys and girls) under the Socially Smart Bhubaneswar Project of the BSCL are working for a great social change activity across 100 slums of the city.

To get more people to cycle Bhubaneswar had realised this early on, and created a city-wide cycling network plan (Public Bicycle Sharing under “Mo Cycle’’) along high-density development and existing transit corridors, with special focus on making cycling popular and useful as a tool to last mile connectivity.

The other cities in Top-11 are:

Bengaluru in Karnataka,

Chandigarh in Punjab and Haryana

Kohima in Nagaland

Nagpur in Maharashtra

New Town Kolkata in West Bengal

Pimpri Chinchwad in Maharashtra

Rajkot in Gujarat

Surat in Gujarat

Vadodara in Gujarat

Warangal in Telangana