Rent an e-cycle: South Delhi residents to soon get public e-bike mobility option

People in south Delhi areas will soon be able to avail e-cycle sharing system as the standing committee of its civic body on Wednesday approved a proposal for the project.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation gave the nod to the proposal in its meeting at the Civic Center, a senior official said.

SDMC Standing Committee's Chairman Rajdutt Gehlot said the civic body has approved a "policy for installation and operation of public e-bike or e-cycle or cycle (non-motorised) transportation sharing system in its area".

He said that this policy will be provided at a low cost, with environment-friendly mobility option to city residents under which user can check out such bikes or cycles at one station and return the same to any other station in the network.

The whole system will also be integrated with existing public transport system, he was quoted as saying in a statement by the SDMC.

(Related read: Why electric vehicles alone won't (and can't) solve Delhi's toxic air woes)

Gehlot said that the approved system will be proved a key element in a city's strategy to expand the use of sustainable transport modes and is expected to boost the use of public transport by providing crucial first and last mile connectivity to the public transport system.

He said it will be a fully automated locking system that will allow users to check easily in or out of e-bike, e-cycle, cycle share stations.

A wireless tracking system such as radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) or a mobile app will locate where the vehicle is picked up from and returned to, he added.

Gehlot also said that the SDMC is planning to engage an agency for providing doorstep service for its property taxpayers, for filing their online returns and for its collection.

"Today, we have passed this proposal in the meeting of the Standing Committee to facilitate the citizens. Under this proposal, on receipt of a call from a citizen at the SDMC's call centre, a unique token number will be generated which will be shared with the citizen for all future references till the final payment is made into the account of the SDMC," he said.

He said that on successful completion of the property tax transaction, Mobile Sahayak shall collect a nominal facilitation fee from the taxpayer.