Stepping out on Delhi roads is a nightmare, isn’t it? Well, if you’re a Delhiite, you sure know how difficult it can be. The traffic and congestion on every other road are not just bad for our schedules, it’s terrible for the environment as well. When the metro first came to Delhi, everyone was relieved because it meant fewer vehicles on the roads, but people still have to get to the station somehow, right?
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is now trying to make this first and last mile of your commute eco-friendly by offering electric bikes at nine metro stations across the city on blue and yellow lines. The DMRC has partnered with Bengaluru-based bike-sharing company Yulu, which launched operations in the capital on Monday.
The services are being offered from Dilli Haat (INA) to JLN Stadium in central Delhi in order to reduce pollution in the city. “With the launch of our operations in Delhi, we are providing a green commute option to the residents of Delhi and are committed to expanding our services to the whole NCR region. We are proud to collaborate with DMRC for a common vision of better first and last-mile connectivity, reducing congestion and improving air quality,” Yulu Bikes CEO Amit Gupta told PTI.
Yulu was launched in Bengaluru and is now available in Mumbai, Pune, and Bhubaneswar. It was founded with the aim to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution by deploying vehicles that run solely on battery. Yulu bikes don’t puncture, nor are they easy to be tampered with.
Apart from this, every Yulu bike is trackable, as it has its own sim card, GPS, and Bluetooth. The user just has to download the Yulu app in order to hire one of the bikes, and then everything is done on a do-it-yourself basis.
The plan is for Yulu to deploy 5,000 electric non-motorised vehicles, called Yulu Miracles, at metro stations by the end of 2019. This service will then be extended to all the metro stations in the NCR region by early 2020, with the deployment of up to 25,000 Yulu Miracles.
“Our public bike-sharing (PBS) initiative with Yulu will provide first and last-mile connectivity to our users. It is one-of-its-kind collaboration to make mobility seamless and sustainable,” DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh, who inaugurated the service from Mandi House metro station, told the media.
In June this year, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had announced free travel in Delhi metro, DTC buses and cluster buses for women, which had led to a lot of debate about whether this was a blessing or an act of charity. In August, the DMRC had launched free Wi-Fi at all Metro stations on its blue line, and they plan to launch the same at all metro stations in the city over the next nine months or so.
Featured image: Twitter
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