Chandigarh, April 23: More than a year after the idea of public bicycle sharing system in Chandigarh was floated as part of the Smart City project, it continues to remain a non-starter.
The project hit a roadblock in November last year, after the UT administration had raised objections on the public bicycle sharing system, for which the MC had already invited bids through a request for proposal (RFP). The bone of contention was the size of the stations for the sharing point, besides the fact that the MC had allowed the project for a period of 11 years, while under the Clause 3 of the Advertisement Control Order, a project could only be allowed for a maximum of five years. Five months have passed since the objections were raised, but so far the MC has failed to clear it.
Once the objections are removed, the project will be moved to the board of directors of Chandigarh Smart City Limited for approval, following which a fresh request for proposal (RFP) will be invited, which will take at least three more months.
MC joint commissioner-cum-nodal officer of Chandigarh Smart City Limited, Tejdeep Singh Saini said, “We are in the final stage of removing the objections and once this is done, it will be sent to the board of directors for approval. The meeting of the board of directors has not been fixed yet.”
Another senior official of the Smart City Limited said that since one of directors will not be in city for at least a month, the meeting cannot be held before June.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
