The Hindu          12.09.2016 

Corporation initiates move to promote bicycling tracks

Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan and a few
bicycling enthusiasts cycling on the Ukkadam Big Tank bund on Sunday to
initiate non-motorised transport project. —Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

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.