Portal for application: https://smartnet.niua.org/indiacyclechallenge/
Key People:
Around 450 participants attended the event including the CEO’s of Smart Cities, commissioners, city officials, civil society organisations experts and citizens.
India Cycles4Change Challenge:
Aim: To connect the cities with citizens and experts to develop a vision to promote cycling.
Eligibility for the challenge:
- All the cities under the Smart Cities Mission.
- Capital cities of the State/Union Territories (UT).
- Cities with a population more than 5 lakhs.
The eligible cities can register through the portal from 10th July 2020 to 21st July 2020.
Stages of the challenge:
The challenge runs in 2 stages:
Stage 1:
The cities will focus on testing and promote cycling and develop a scale up strategy.
This state will run till October 2020.
Stage 2:
The Ministry will shortlist 11 towns and provide a cash award of Rs.1 crore and guidance from international and national experts to develop the initiatives.
Stage 2 will run until May 2021.
Benefits of Cycles4Change:
i.The recent survey by Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) indicated that cycling would increase by 50-65% as cities come out of lockdown.
ii.The investment in cycling infrastructure will have economic benefits up to 5.5 times the initial investment .
iii.The increasing cycling will support the green economic recovery.
iv.Cycling for short distances can result in Rs. 1.8 trillion to the annual gain of the Indian economy.
Initiatives in India:
i.Kolkata has proposed reclaiming parking spaces to create a dedicated cycle corridor, this will be implemented by 2021 after a preliminary road survey.
ii.The Green lane foundation of Guwahati, is conducting a survey for citizens to vote on the best cycling route to construct a bicycle lane in the city. This will be utilised in the Cycles4Change challenge.
About Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs:
Minister of State– Hardeep Singh Puri.