Bicycle plan: Yulu bikes, only service provider in Pune, to add 1,000 bicycles by January 2020

Government should back such projects and help the city become cycle-friendly, says Amit Gupta, chief executive officer, Yulu bikes

The only service provider in the bicycle plan of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (PSCDCL) ambitious project, Yulu bikes, looks positive despite three service providers quitting the project. Yulu bikes who introduced the bicycles in August 2018, is the only provider who has 2,000 bicycles in certain pockets of the city and plans to add 1,000 cycles by January 2020.

A car is parked on the bicycle track at Satara road near Walvekarnagar, on Wednesday. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

Mobike, ofo and Zoomcar’s Pedl were the providers who quit the project. Mobike has shut down all the international operations except for China as the business is not profitable.

Amit Gupta, chief executive officer, Yulu bikes, said, “Major area of operations in Pune is Magarpatta city and Amanora Township where there are 500 plus cycles deployed, used mostly by IT employees. Besides we also have cycles in Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and research centre, Kalyaninagar, Koregaon Park and Vimannagar.”

“Government should back such projects and help the city become cycle-friendly. If the infrastructure is in place, it will bring about a lot of difference for meeting the first and last-mile connectivity,” said Gupta.

Though the first two operators to leave the project were ofo and Zoomcar’s PEDL, Greg Moran, CEO, Zoomcar Pedl, said, “Zoomcar is doubling down on PEDL and scooters alike with the focus to re-launch with a more robust hardware product later next year. This move to pull out 5,000 bicycles is temporary.”

Each of these providers felt that this scheme would work better if there was government backing.

Case so far

2018: Smart City began first bicycle sharing plan on a trial basis in the pilot model in Aundh, starting with PEDL, as one of the vendors and slowly took it across the city with three more vendors. There were series of vandalism and theft reports of bicycles and people opting out of the schemes.

2019: The share a bicycle plan is still alive thanks to Yulu, who is the only player providing bicycles to the project.