The Manipur Cycle Club is launching the facility here in collaboration with the state environment and ecology department.
The club’s secretary, Niran Thongbam, said, “We are launching the rent-a-cycle facility in collaboration with the environment and ecology department on a pilot basis for daily commuters to Imphal. It is being started at Keishampat junction here on November 15.”
The department provided a sum of Rs 30,000 for starting the facility on an experimental basis.
The secretary said based on the results of the experiment, the club would introduce this facility along with cycle repairing and maintenance facilities in other locations from next year.
Environmentalists, professionals and government employees formed the club on January 23 this year with the objective of reducing pollution and volume of traffic in Imphal and also to reduce the rate of road accidents.
It is also supported by the European Manipur Association, a body of Manipu- ris living in European countries, where cycling is very popular.
The club has been organising events called Critical Mass, involving cycle rallies and distribution of leaflets, in different localities on the last Sunday of every month to create awareness about environmental conservation and health benefits of cycling.
The club, with 450 registered members, organised the tenth Critical Mass today.
Critical Mass, a global movement for popularising cycles, is very popular in 360 cities around the world.
The club has also started a campaign for creation of cycle lanes and cycle parking spaces along Imphal streets and has proposed to the art and culture department, which is taking care of the Kangla Fort, to declare the historical place a carbon-free zone to preserve its cultural heritage and the vegetation inside the campus along with introduction of the rent-a-cycle facility inside the fort.
Another programme on the list of activities of the club is to organise a five-day cycle expedition in collaboration with the Manipur Mountaineering and Trekking Association to Keibul Lamjao National Park in Bishnupur district during the Sangai festival.
The Manipur tourism department organises the festival every year in the park, which is home to the most threatened deer species in the world — Sangai.
The decision to introduce the rent-a-cycle facility has been welcomed by visitors in the city.
“I come to the city by bus from Nambol in Bishnupur district every day to attend office. From the bus stand, I catch an auto-rickshaw for Rs 50 to and from office daily. With the cycle facility, I will save Rs 40 and also improve my health,” N. Brojen, a government employee from Nambol in Bishnupur district, said.
Okram Bishwajit, president of the European Manipur Association, who is currently in Imphal, said people who cycled regularly had less chances of developing joint aches during old age.
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