The Hindu 12.09.2016
Corporation initiates move to promote bicycling tracks
Sunday morning at the Ukkadam Big Tank bund in the city was the place to be as the Coimbatore Corporation, non-government organisation ITDP and a few civil society groups got together to promote bicycling and kick start the non-motorised transport project.
Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan, who was there bicycling, said that the objective of holding the event was to tell the city residents that they could use the 1.2 km stretch every day in the mornings to walk or cycle. It was also to tell them that the Corporation was initiating a few other projects that would promote non-motorised transport in the city.
The Coimbatore Corporation Council had just passed a resolution on August 31 this year to promote bicycle sharing in the city. It had designated a 20 km area covering Saibaba Colony, Tatabad, Ramnagar, P.N. Palayam, Coimbatore Railway Junction, Race Course, Ukkadam, R.S. Puram, Puliakulam, Town Hall and Gopalapuram with 140 bicycle stations and 1,600 bicycles.
The Corporation would also promote the stretch along the Perur Lake where the Corporation had created a similar facility, the Commissioner added.
ITDP’s Senior Associate-Advocacy Sarah Natasha said the Sunday exercise was more about making people aware of the facility the Corporation had created on the Ukkadam Big Tank bund and drawing people to the place everyday.
It would help the Corporation and the city when bicycling tracks were created across the city as part of the non-motorised transport project.
She said that the ITDP had taken feedback from walkers and cyclists and would do so in the next few days before going to the drawing board to discuss with architects to design non-motorised tracks in the city.
On Sunday, Radio City donated 10 re-fitted bicycles collected that were lying unused with residents of apartments in the city. The radio channel would continue the programme.
