In India, the transport sector is responsible for 14% of overall greenhouse gas emissions. In light of the nation’s recent commitment to net-zero emissions by 2070, Indian cities have a unique opportunity to skip the usual stages of gradual and marginal improvements to public transport and fuel efficiency. What India needs is an urgent and ambitious vision to overhaul its public transport system. And e-buses may be the answer.  

Cities need to improve and strengthen their transport systems and augment the number of buses on the streets. Buses can move people across cities more efficiently—in lesser space and at lower cost—and more affordably than any other transport mode. As of 2019, India had only ~30,000 buses to meet the needs of over 471 million people living in urban areas. As per the benchmarks laid out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, cities require 60 buses per lakh population, and thus India needs an additional 1,45,000 buses to adequately serve the travel needs of citizens. India is operating at less than one-fifth of the buses that it needs.

Given the number of people who travel in every bus, the amount of tailpipe emission per passenger per trip is already low in even diesel and CNG buses. This can further be brought down to ZERO if we can accelerate the transition to electric buses. Here’s why e-buses are better.

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Why e-buses are better

Studies show that e-buses are more cost-efficient to operate compared to diesel/CNG buses, especially with rising fuel prices. In the case of Pune’s PMPML, the fuel cost/ km for 9m and 12m e-buses is ₹5.8 and ₹6.6 respectively, which is about one-third of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) buses.

E-buses have a drastically lower environmental footprint as they require lower energy/km to operate. Compared to diesel buses, e-buses have zero tailpipe emissions. They also provide a much better service to passengers—smoke-free rides, smooth rides. As per an April ’22 survey conducted by PMPML in association with ITDP India among e-bus commuters, 78% of respondents prefer to travel by e-bus because of less noise and vibrations. 

With fewer moving parts, e-buses require lesser maintenance, reducing the maintenance cost and the overall financial cost of operating them. They are also more reliable and have a lower trip cancellation rate, improving the quality of service. The benefits are umpteen, so it is advisable for urban bus operators to transition to e-buses.

Since 2015, India has seen multiple schemes to promote the transition to e-buses, by subsidising the cost of their purchase for cities. However, the road to transition is replete with its own set of challenges. Most city & state transport undertakings (STUs)—the agencies responsible for public bus operations in India lack the technical knowledge to procure, deploy, and manage e-bus fleets optimally. Several STUs also face funding gaps and do not have budgets to make direct purchases, leading to slow uptake of these schemes.

In this blog, we investigate the current status of e-buses in India, and how close (or far?) we are to a 100% transition. 

How cities are procuring more e-buses

FAME-I

To accelerate the transition to electric and hybrid vehicles—such as 2-wheelers, cars, 3-wheelers, and buses—the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) Scheme in 2015 under the National Electric Mobility Mission. FAME was a subsidy programme for electric vehicle manufacturers as well as providers. Under the scheme, the State Transport Undertakings (STUs) were given subsidies to procure public electric buses and install the required charging infrastructure.

FAME-I offered two options for STUs—Outright purchase and Gross Cost Contract, with subsidies from the Government of India. For the purchase of e-buses, which typically cost between 75 lakhs (USD 93670) to 1.75 crores (USD 218500) depending on the battery size, DHI offered two kinds of demand incentives:

Five cities (Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur) invited bids under GCC, and the rest (Indore, Lucknow, Kolkata, Jammu and Guwahati) went ahead with the outright purchase of buses. However, the rollout of buses has been slow in many states due to a variety of reasons. Tenders have been cancelled in Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur—all cities that chose to go ahead with GCC except Hyderabad—while buses have been pressed into service in the rest.

Under the GCC model, the tender conditions, bus requirements, and range requirements were vastly different across cities, leading to a considerable variation in prices. Cities requested for 9m/12m buses, AC and non-AC variants. Another notable difference was in terms of the city’s range requirements (assured km per day). Kolkata, for example, had one of the lowest requirements at 150km/day while Hyderabad asked for 225 km/day. The tender documents also revealed that some cities pushed the cost of electricity onto the GCC operators, while others chose to pay for it themselves. This also led to a lot of tenders getting cancelled.

By the end of the FAME-I scheme, 10 cities received the subsidy, and a total of 425 e-buses were deployed:

The steep costs of electric buses were worrying—compared to diesel buses, electric buses were 2-3 times more expensive, and hence many transport undertakings were not in favour of deploying the new technology, especially through direct purchase.

FAME-II

In 2019, the Government of India approved Phase II of the FAME Scheme, with total budgetary support of INR 10,000 Crore (USD 1.3 billion). FAME-II focussed on the electrification of public & shared transport. Through this scheme, DHI intended to support the procurement of 7090 e-buses, with a total outlay of about INR 3500 Crores (USD 450 million). 

For a city to be selected, it needed to meet two criteria—one was that the state had an Electric Vehicle policy; and two, it had a provision to waive the registration charges and road taxes for electric vehicles. FAME-II also mandated procuring buses through a ‘Gross Cost Contract’ (GCC). Under FAME-II, DHI offers a maximum demand incentive of INR 55 lakhs (USD 71k) per bus for 10-12m buses, INR 45 Lakhs (USD 58k) for 8-10m buses, and  INR 35 Lakhs (USD 45k) for 6-8m buses.

FAME-II received a tremendous response—86 proposals from 26 States and Union Territories for the deployment of 14,988 e-buses. After a thorough evaluation, the Government of India sanctioned 64 City & State Transport Undertakings to procure 5095 e-buses for intra-city operations; 400 e-buses for inter-city operations; and 100 e-buses for last-mile connectivity to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). 

DHI approved the highest number of e-buses for the state of Maharashtra (725 e-buses), followed by Uttar Pradesh (600 e-buses), Gujarat (550 e-buses) and Tamil Nadu (525 e-buses), while other states received a sanction of less than 500 e-buses. 

As of Dec’ 2021, 2965 buses have either been deployed/received a supply order or received extension to issue a supply order, as part of the FAME-II scheme.

Grand Challenge

A lot of cities were not able to utilise FAME-II assistance, as many e-bus suppliers quoted significantly higher prices during the FAME-I scheme, owing to higher liabilities such as setting up of charging infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted many cities’ plans to procure e-buses under the scheme. Tenders were cancelled in several cities. 

To bring down the per km price, Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL)—an arm of the state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd.—was tasked to aggregate the demand and float a combined tender on behalf of all 9 remaining cities with more than 4 million population, on the GCC model. The STUs were invited to express their interest to aggregate the demand. As a result, CESL rolled out a tender for 5,450 buses worth INR 5,500 crores (USD 706 million), seeking bids for e-bus operations in five cities: Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Surat. Tata Motors has emerged as the lowest bidder across all five operational categories. Because of the mass tender, the bid received were less than ₹50/km for 12m buses.

Other Schemes

Outside FAME-I and II, many state and city governments have shown interest in procuring electric buses, with a majority opting to procure e-buses under the GCC model.

Pune’s public bus operator, Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd., procured 25 9m variant e-buses and 125 12m variant e-buses, with funding from the Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. As this procurement was done outside the FAME schemes, the Municipal Corporations of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad decided to provide an upfront subsidy of INR 50 lakhs/bus (USD 65,000) through the Smart City Funds. 

Other states have also issued Request for Proposals (RFPs) for e-buses, with fleet sizes ranging from 10 to 500. Delhi is the largest of them all. DIMTS, the Special Purpose Vehicle that manages the city’s cluster bus operations, has already initiated the process to procure 375 12m variant AC e-buses. 

In 2019, the Government of Tamil Nadu received a loan of INR 1,600 crore (USD 200 million) from KfW, the German state-owned development bank, to procure 2,000 e-buses, of which 500 would be procured under outright purchase by 2022 in Phase-I.

How cities can procure more e-buses

To meet its current public transport needs, Indian cities need 1,75,000 buses, while presently they have only 35,000 buses operated by STUs. Of these, around 2000 are electric. The gap is wide, but not insurmountable.

Funding under the FAME schemes and from other sources have accelerated the procurement of e-buses and the adoption of the Gross Cost Contract model in Indian cities. Going forward, cities require similar sustained financial support to enable a 100% transition to e-buses. 

The procurement of e-buses is only the beginning, and states need to identify sustainable funding sources to keep e-bus operations up and running. States and cities should consider setting up Urban Transport Funds (UTF), which will not only help sustain the operations of e-buses but also help cities maintain high-quality service. Tamil Nadu, for example, has used loans from development banks to improve and expand their bus operations, and other STUs must also consider such methods of financing.

Most STUs currently lack the knowledge to plan and operate e-buses. As cities procure more and more e-buses, it’s essential that public transport operators now equip themselves technically to deploy and utilise upcoming e-bus fleets efficiently and effectively. As Indian cities embark on this transition, a capacity development programme and peer-to-peer learning for city officials across the country would go a long way towards ensuring cities have all the support they need to make our transition to 100% e-buses in Indian cities.

Stay tuned to the next part of the series where we see how cities can choose among the different types of procurement models in India, for a faster and smoother transition to e-buses.

Written by: Aishwarya Soni
Edited by: Keshav Suryanarayanan
With inputs from: Vaishali Singh and Dhruv Soni

To encourage more people to cycle and build a strong cycling culture in the city, Silvassa Smart City Ltd., in partnership with ITDP India and UrbanMorph, rolled out a pan-city Cycle2Work campaign for industries and organisations at a launch event on Thursday, 21st July’22. The campaign calls for employees to reconsider their every mobility choice—to shift from cars and motorbikes, and cycle to their workplace instead, building health while saving the planet. Silvassa’s efforts have inspired many other officials from India to launch Cycle2Work in their cities. 

Through repeated positive experience, Cycle2Work has the potential to nudge behaviour change, and ingrain a cycling habit among people.

Opening the event, Ms Charmie Parekh, CEO, Silvassa Smart City Ltd., said:

“Cycle2work is a great initiative for companies to encourage their employees to stay healthy and reduce carbon emissions. Parallelly, we will also improve cycle infrastructure to make Silvassa a cycling city.”

One and half months of testing and learning

Silvassa launched the test phase of Silvassa Cycle2Work on World Cycling Day on 3rd June 2022. Post a successful 45 days of testing and learning with six industries, the test phase concluded, and all industries and organisations in Silvassa are now invited to join the campaign and promote cycling to work amongst their employees. 

Silvassa followed a four pronged approach for the test of the campaign: Onboard, Engage, Incentivise, and Monitor

Onboard

To effectively measure the shift in user behaviour and uptake of cycling in the city, there was a need to have a single platform where the cycle2work rides would be tracked. Cycleto.work, an innovative open-source platform created by UrbanMorph, gamifies cycling for commute through a leaderboard. Here, individuals can check how they stack up against others within their company as well as in the city, country, and even around the globe! Currently, more than 450 organisations are registered on the platform.  

Cycleto.work shows you:

• How many cyclists from a company have enrolled 
• The leaderboard position of the company in comparison to other cycleto.work companies
• Fuel savings
• Carbon offset
• Routes that are used by the cyclists

and several other features!

Engage

Each of the industries appointed “Cycling Ambassadors”—an inidividual who can champion the cause of cycling and can dedicate time towards this initiative. The Ambassadors encouraged their respective teams to sign up on the cycleto.work platform and track their rides. They motivated them through active outreach through posters, emails, and meetings. They also spotlighted stories of the individuals who cycled to work—including those from senior leadership—on social media and on the company websites.

Incentivise

Industries also provided facilities and incentives to keep up the cycling momentum.

Most industries installed cycle parking stands at their premises. Some installed locker facilities to safely store the employee smartphones, as some industries prohibited their usage inside the premises. Other facilities such as showers, changing rooms were also being considered.

Incentives were broadly of three kinds:
1. Milestone-based gifts: Some industries gifted every new registration with a helmet, water bottle, and head light. They also rewarded the cyclists for each milestone they achieved: a t-shirt for completing 200km, a thermos water bottle for completing 400km, and a bag for completing 600km.

2. Money rewards: Some Ambassadors were offered token money to motivate others in the organisation to join as well. One industry also considered an allowance of Rs 500 for those who cycled to work.

3. Certificates and recognition: Industries acknowledged the employees who cycled to work with certificates of appreciation.

Monitor

Progress was regularly monitored on a Whatsapp group with the Industry ambassadors, and through weekly leaderboard updates.

During the test phase, the six industries steadily jumped the ranks of the leaderboard as several employees embraced cycling as their everyday mode of commute. As of July, four out of the six industries were listed in the top 25 rankings.

The impact

Together, the six industries have completed 377 rides, saved 305 litres of fuel, and offset 706kgs of carbon emissions!  

We’re excited to see the impact scale up with all organisations and industries in Silvassa joining the campaign.

Way forward for cycling in Silvassa

As the number of cyclists in the city grows, Silvassa must create the right systems to promote and sustain cycling. ITDP India will work with Silvassa on a charting a holistic plan—getting support from all concerned stakeholders (such as the traffic police), creating a cycling network, and ensuring high-quality designs for cycling infrastructure.

To accelerate and scale up walking & cycling initiatives across the country, the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in partnership with ITDP India, Directorate of Urban Land Transport and Bengaluru Smart City, organised the first ‘Healthy Streets Capacity Building Workshop’ on 7th & 8th of July 2022.

More than 100 City officials across 37 cities—consisting of CEOs & Engineers— participated from all over India. It was heartening to meet each other in person after a bout of online workshops owing to the pandemic.

The 2-day workshop focussed on how cities can create and scale up high-quality #streetdesign projects—through presentations, panel discussions with city officials, and site visits. 

The workshop included sessions on building the foundation for institutional reforms, propelling action for permanent street transformation, and leveraging campaigns and outreach to build walking and cycling habits among citizens.

Find all the presentations and session recordings, right here in this blog!

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Overview of 2023 Goals & Submission Timelines

View the presentation here

With over 35 cities progressing into Stage 2 of the India Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges, and more than 50 cities signed up for Season 2, it is time to reflect on the pilot interventions done by cities have done so far and learn from them. In the introductory session, Aswathy Dilip shared the journey of front-runner cities that have demonstrated impactful implementation of Healthy Street pilot projects, and are now moving towards scaling up their efforts.

Aswathy also shed light on the six steps that have led to great streets in cities across the country, and even across the world:

Cities are now marching towards the Healthy Streets, Healthy Cities: 2023 goals. Cities have proposed to complete over 2000kms of permanent street transformations by 2023, and are currently implementing nearly 1900kms.

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Importance of good street design: Do’s & Dont’s

View the presentation here

In the first knowledge sharing session, Pranjal Kulkarni highlighted that while scaling-up the street transformations in India, it is important to get the design and execution right.

Issues like poor design and details of footpaths, designs that lack an understanding of the local context, poor execution, poor material selection, lack of stakeholder coordination, and lack of enforcement, render the footpaths unusable—forcing people to walk on the carriageway. The session pointed out the need to implement Healthy Streets, that ensures everyone – be it an 8 year old or an 80 year old – can move safely and comfortably.

While creating Healthy Streets across the city, it is important to take up new streets, but also redesign streets that were previously executed.

Here are the next steps for cities to create Healthy Streets:

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Relooking at project implementation & costs

View the presentation here

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Discussion with three cities on their challenges & learnings on planning, design, implementation

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Institutionalising campaigns to make walking and cycling a habit

Through the Challenges, more than 50 cities have conducted open street campaigns, tested on-ground interventions, and hosted cycle rallies towards nudging a walking and cycling habit among citizens. In her session, Kashmira Dubash emphasised the importance of institutionalising campaigns— as people need repeated positive experiences of walking and cycling, before changing their ingrained habit of using private motor vehicles.

Institutionalising campaigns puts in place a system to support the city in scaling up walking and cycling events as a recurring campaign. Regular campaigns ensure that citizens can experience their streets; embed mobility-related behavioural change; and demonstrate proof of concept.

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Park it Right – Design, Pricing, Enforcement

View the presentation here

Parking, if not planned, can reduce the usability of footpaths and cycle tracks, and unmanaged parking acts as a deterrent for people to walk and cycle. In his session, Parin Visariya highlighted the need to first manage on-street parking through design & pricing. This will automatically create a market for off-street parking, driven by the private sector.

In most Indian cities today, unmanaged parking often causes spot-level traffic jams, and on-street parking is often difficult to find in markets. Yet parking lots often lie vacant and private off-street parking remains under-utilised.

Cities can park it right through three key elements:

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Bengaluru’s parking policy & parking management system

View the presentation here

View the presentation here

Learning from Bengaluru’s best practices

As part of the two-day workshop, officials from the Bengaluru Smart City gave an overview of their projects, and led site visits for participants to learn from the city’s street design projects and parking management system.

Participants unanimously echoed the value of learnings from on-ground experience and peer-to-peer learning through the workshop. Cities like Kochi, New Town Kolkata, Chandigarh are keen to adopt a parking policy and initiate an on-ground parking management system. Many cities have also expressed the need to hire good urban designers & planners as part of their teams, and onboard expert design consultants for the projects. 

Written by: Sophiya Islam
Edited by: Aishwarya Soni

 Wrapping up an exciting stage 1!

Earlier this month, Sri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, announced the 46 top runner cities of the Transport4All Challenge Stage 1—the cities which now qualify for Stage 2.
Also unveiled: ‘Analysis of Public Transport Needs in India’, an in-depth publication about Stage 1, the survey analysis, and the problem statements. 

Driven by the vision to improve public transport for all users—everyday passengers; bus drivers and conductors; auto, rickshaws, and other informal mode drivers—through the power of tech and digital innovation, here’s what we collectively achieved in Stage 1 of the Challenge. 

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1. Over 130 cities and 200 NGO partners signed up for the Challenge

Launched in April’21 by the Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the Challenge invited cities from all over India to participate—to understand the problems plaguing public transport, work with startups and citizens to create and test solutions, and then scale them up across the city. 

130 cities from across India signed up for the Challenge.

Transport4All, as the name suggests, is about creating better public transport for everyone, be it the passengers or the service providers. At the core of the Challenge are people, and to ensure their representation and participation, the Challenge invited NGOs to join hands with cities.

Over 200 civil society organisations, research organisations, and educational institutes came forth and signed up to support their cities—making it one of the largest collective working towards reforming public transport.

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2. 100 cities created ‘Transport4All task forces’

For a seamless experience, public transport systems need to function as a single system. That, however, is not the case in India. This is because in a city—

• Different government agencies are responsible for different infrastructure for a bus system. For example, in Chennai, the bus fleet is operated and maintained by the State Transport Undertaking-MTC, whereas bus stops are created and maintained by the road-owning agency—either the Greater Chennai Corporation or the Highways department, depending on the road.  
• Each public transport mode—the public bus, the metro, the suburban rail—is owned and operated by independent bodies.   
• Development authority governs the nature and extent of buildings in different parts of the city, which affect the usability of public transport modes.  
• Traffic police oversee matters such as vehicle rerouting, dedicated bus lanes, and parking which directly affect how buses and shared modes service passengers.  

Now, imagine if all of these agencies come together under one roof.

That would change how decisions are made and projects are implemented. Through a single Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTAs) like this, creating transport systems becomes more integrated, coordinated, collaborative, and most importantly, faster. 

Transport4All Challenge made that happen.

100 cities created ‘Transport4All Task Forces’—like mini-Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities, that brought together all stakeholders and departments responsible for public transport in the city into one big collective. These are the Municipal Corporation, Smart City Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), City Bus Undertaking, Metro and Suburban Rail, Regional Transport Office, Traffic Police, and Road Owning Agencies. 

To represent Informal Public Transport (IPT) and citizen voices, IPT unions and NGOs too were included. Technical experts and academic institutes working in the field of sustainable mobility were also part of the Task Force, to provide expertise and guidance.

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3. 46 cities surveyed 2 lakh citizens, 17K bus drivers and conductors, and 22K IPT drivers

Before cities designed solutions, they needed to pin down the problems that people—both passengers as well as drivers and conductors—faced. In what was one of India’s largest public transport data exercises, 46 cities—out of 130 cities—engaged with these stakeholders by asking them about their everyday issues with buses and shared modes like autos, vans, and rickshaws.

Survey volunteers went to neighbourhoods in different parts of the city and spoke with citizens of varied gender, age, and incomes; chatted with commuters near bus stops and recorded their concerns and suggestions; sat with groups of shared mode drivers and held focussed discussions. Responses were then fed into an automated data analysis system, to draw insights and inferences.

For the first time, cities had data—local, specific, disaggregated—to guide and direct them to the problems that needed fixing.

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4. 46 cities submitted 165 problem statements

Public transport data—that was previously assumed, misunderstood, or simply unavailable—now had strong evidence. The survey questionnaires covered several topics on public transport—safety, convenience, services, fare payment, passenger information, as well as fleet maintenance, scheduling, permits—and the emerging data stories revealed the issues that needed attention and intervention.

Through a guided framework, cities were able to translate these specific issues into problem statements, and what needs to be done to address them.

Of the several problem statements, each city had to prioritize the top five, in consultation with their Task Force. After a rigorous 8-month-long process of data collection, scrutiny, and analysis, 46 cities successfully submitted 165 problem statements and qualified for Stage 2 of the Transport4All Change.

Our heartiest congratulations to the 46 Champion Cities!

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5. 10 problem statements curated, will now lead to digital solutions

The Transport4All Challenge team studied each of the 165 problem statements and recognised how multiple problem statements fed into one or more of the five solution areas, such as:

• Service monitoring and planning 
• Passenger information & interaction
• Fare products and payment
• Financing, procurement, and regulation
• Prioritisation of bus transport

Finally, the team curated 10 problem statements that need tech-based solutions,( and an additional 4 that require non-technology solutions)—to tackle the 165 problem statements submitted by the cities.

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Curious to know more about the survey insights and problem statements? Head to transport4all.in and read our in-depth publication:

Looking forward to stage 2!

Launching in July’22, Stage 2 of Transport4All Challenge will connect cities and startups to innovate and create tech-based, digital solutions for the 10 curated problem statements to make formal and informal public transport safe, reliable, and convenient for all. 

Startup innovations have immense potential, and we are eager to see how they positively contribute and impact the public transport sector.

Thank you for following our work in Stage 1, and stay tuned as we bring you more stories from Stage 2!

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The Transport4All Challenge is a collaboration between Smart Cities Mission, Urban Transport MOHUA, World Bank, CiX, and Startup India, with ITDP India as the co-host and technical knowledge partner.

World Bicycle Day gives us an opportunity to renew our commitment towards cycling, to build more partnerships and to think big for the days that are going to come before us. Let us realise that the magnitude we are dealing with in our cities is immense. Therefore, whatever we are doing at the moment has to scale-up.

Let this be the year when your city comes out on top as far as bold, future-oriented, citizen-centric policies are concerned. Let us work as a team to make this a cycling year for our country.

– Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs

On June 3rd 2022, India celebrated World Bicycle Day akin to a nationwide festival. People across all genders & ages—women, children, and elderly—came riding fearlessly on their cycles and took over their streets. Over 50 cities from all over the country brought communities together for cycle rallies, women-only cycle rides, cyclothons, and much more. 

Thousands of citizens and city leaders cycled as part of the ‘One-day Cycling Challenge’, and committed to cycle more—for work, errands, and for health! For the first time, over 40 cities conducted knowledge-sharing sessions for citizens to embrace cycling. Cities also pledged to institutionalise campaigns, adopt progressive policies, and set systems to create a safe walking and cycling environment for all. These cycling celebrations were not just for a day, but continued across the entire week, from the 3rd to the 10th of June!

^{Citizens flock to the streets of India en masse for World Cycling Day}

Celebrating two years of the India Cycles4Change Challenge

City leaders & officials, cycling champions & cycle manufacturing industries from all over India connected virtually on a session by the Smart Cities Mission— to celebrate two years of the India Cycle4Change Challenge and to reflect on the journey so far.

The India Cycles4Change Challenge—hosted by the Smart Cities Mission of the Housing & Urban Affairs and co-hosted by ITDP India—aims to inspire cities to create cycling-friendly streets and neighbourhoods, where everyone can safely and comfortably cycle, regardless of their class, gender, age, or ability.

Over the last two years, the Challenge has inspired over 100 cities to collectively transform India into a cycling-friendly nation. Cities have proposed and initiated on-ground transformation of nearly 4000 kms, mobilising nearly 2000 civic groups & individuals to take action, and hosted more than 400 citizen events.

The India Cycles for Change Challenge has been an amazing platform for all the cities to try new things. When we started putting cycle lanes in the Indian scenario we realised the hurdles that we need to overcome. The Challenge has given the opportunity for cyclists like us to engage positively with government agencies to provide solutions.

– Sathya Sankaran, Bicycle Mayor, Bengaluru

To ensure an inclusive design and planning process, cities have onboarded women as part of the decision-making committees. Cities tested ideas like cycle training schools, women-only cycle rallies, free cycle repair clinics, and cycle donations for the needy, and cooperative cycle rental schemes. 

Silvassa Smart City team urged mothers to pick up the long forgotten habit of cycling, assisted them in brushing up their cycling skills, and reinvented the confidence they lacked. Going to the neighbourhoods, talking to them, engaging them helped us reach more and more citizens.

– Charmie Parikh, CEO, Silvassa Smart City

Leading by example, city officials cycled to work, highlighting the ease of mobility and benefits of cycling, and inspiring their citizens to cycle too! Following this, several cities are now partnering with private organisations and corporates to incentivise their employees to cycle to work.

The India Cycles4Change Challenge has changed the way we look at cycling, from a poor man’s vehicle to a status symbol. During the challenge, the leaders were on cycles, and therefore, the perspective has now changed. We hope to continue this momentum together.

– Bhairrvi Joshi, CEO, BYCS India

Moving towards long-term change

We have come a long way with two years of the India Cycles4Change Challenge, and today is a testament of that. The day started with political leaders, mayors, MPs, city leaders, commissioners, engineers and their teams alongwith citizen champions and cyclists from cities across the country, all of us cycling on our streets.

I hope all of you will continue putting the efforts to cycle more often and more importantly continue taking the steps to adopt policies that prioritise cycling.

– Aswathy Dilip, Managing Director, ITDP India

Demonstrating their commitment to transform themselves into cycling-friendly cities, on World Bicycle Day over 20 cities pledged to adopt the “Healthy Streets” Policy, which prioritises walking, cycling, and public transport to enable all citizens to safely access work, education, social opportunities, and other essentials. Over 20 cities started work towards implement “30 KMPH Slow Streets” to reduce the risk of fatalities for pedestrians and cyclists, and to institutionalise “Open Streets” programmes so people can experience their streets as open, public spaces, week after week!

We have a dedicated technical cell for Cycles4Change in Jabalpur and we have notified our Healthy Streets policy after stakeholder consultations. We are now scaling up our interventions to implement permanent on-ground works using learnings from Stage 1 of the Challenge.

– Sambhav Ayachi, Deputy Commissioner, Jabalpur Municipal Corporation

Cities are now working towards scaling up cycling initiatives and bringing long-term resilience through city-wide cycle network plans, policy adoptions, and institutional setups.

In July 2022, a dynamic leaderboard will be launched to showcase the cities’ performance and progress based on the initiatives taken towards the identified goals for 2023. It will also be a tool to build support for scaling up and securing funding & investments.

Celebrating the #HumansWhoCycle

To celebrate the diversity of the bicycle and its users, we at ITDP India spoke to people from different walks of life and heard from them the story of what keeps them pedalling.

Popular Tamil actor Arya shared not just his story but also an important PSA about cycling and the myriad benefits it offers.

And closer home, ITDPians too told the world why they love to cycle!

We hope that cities and citizens continue to build on this cycling momentum and celebrate it every single day, all year round! And you can do your bit towards this, too. Swap your motor vehicle with a cycle for your short trips—start with 5km and lesser, and then consider doing longer trips too. Choose to commute to work by cycle. Offer time to train others to cycle, especially women and children. Participate in cycle donation programmes. And most importantly, nudge your close friends and family members to cycle too.

The more people cycle, the more visible the community becomes, the stronger the cycling revolution becomes!

Written by: Sophiya Islam & Aishwarya Soni

Read the publications:

PMPML’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Vision 2027

PMPML, a Pioneer in Public Transport

Heads turned and the country watched as Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, arrived at Parliament on 30 March, in the country’s first hydrogen fuel-based car. With aspirations to become a self-reliant country, he spoke on the need to produce hydrogen-based fuel in India. The unfortunate hostile conditions and sanctions against Russia have curtailed the global supply of crude oil – India imports 85 percent of its crude oil¹, worth Rs 8 lakh crore. The cascading effect of this is the need to speed up investments in alternative sources of energy to offset the ever-increasing fuel prices and to meet India’s COP26 commitments.  So, is hydrogen that alternate?

Let’s first break down the anatomy of a hydrogen-fuelled vehicle. A hydrogen vehicle has a hydrogen tank that feeds a fuel cell which provides energy, when mixed with oxygen, to power an electric motor. Basically, it has the characteristics of an electric car (because of the electric motor) and a conventional petrol car (as it has a tank). The fuel cell is what turns hydrogen gas into electricity that powers the electric motor and gives it that energy to move. Thus, there are no toxic tailpipe emissions and the only by-product of this process is water and heat. So what’s the catch here?

Firstly, research shows that hydrogen technology, its infrastructure, and supply, are still years behind electric vehicles (EV). In 2021, India reported a total of 1,640 operational public EV chargers in just about 9 cities². What India needs is 400,000 charging stations to meet the requirement for two million EVs by 2026! Now that we are merely four years away from meeting our goal, the government has undertaken initiatives to fast-track the manufacturing and adoption of electric vehicles in India but the process has been slow. We are still trying to fit the EV puzzle together; are we ready to take on hydrogen?

Secondly, producing hydrogen gas is not as simple as one would imagine, albeit it being the most common element in the universe. If we wish to use hydrogen as fuel, it needs to be produced using other compounds such as water, natural gas, and other fossil fuels³ – this is when its environmental impact starts to become a concern. The Green Hydrogen Policy that was unveiled in India in 2022 gave a green signal to renewable energy plants to produce this fuel – but it can only be considered ‘green’ if the renewable energy source that produces hydrogen is also green. That is not the case in India. In short, the process of steam-reforming through which hydrogen is produced leaves behind carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as by-products that contribute to atmospheric carbon.

And lastly, let’s address the elephant in the room – the cost factor. India is aiming to produce 5 million tonnes of ‘green hydrogen’ by 2030. The industry giants such as Adani Enterprises and Reliance have already drawn up plans to invest in manufacturing hydrogen fuel cells. But, for now, the uptake of hydrogen in the transport sector is minimal because of the lack of a distribution system and the cost attached to it. Hydrogen is highly flammable and for it to reach vehicles, it needs to be transported safely. Existing natural gas pipelines aren’t suited for this purpose. Technology and innovations can bring costs down – a report by the International Council on Clean Transportation indicated that costs of green hydrogen can decrease to Rs 340 per kg by 2050, which currently costs a whopping Rs 500 – 1000 per kg.

Despite hydrogen being a promising alternative fuel solution, there are several challenges to its adoption in the near future. It will take years for the technology to become affordable enough to reach the masses. It took Delhi 7-8 years to completely shift to CNG (including the infrastructure) – a fuel that was readily available; hydrogen fuel is still at its innovation stage. However, India carved out a path to march along with its peers in the developed world to achieve climate goals – its COP26 commitments are commendable. And with an eye toward meeting these commitments, India can focus on electrification and a shift to more affordable, sustainable modes of transport.

Written by Kashmira Dubash,
Senior Programme Manager – Communications, Development, and Partnerships.

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¹https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/petrol-diesel-prices-set-to-rise-rs-15-22-per-litre-from-next-week-122030500343_1.html#:~:text=The%20rise%20was%20blamed%20on,of%20nearly%20%24120%20per%20barrel.

²https://www.livemint.com/news/india/these-9-cities-in-india-have-seen-2-5-times-jump-in-ev-charging-stations-in-4-months-11645368507835.html

³https://youmatter.world/en/hydrogen-electric-cars-sustainability-28156/

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Social welfare, equity, and inclusivity are core to Tamil Nadu’s DMK-led Government. TN Budget 2022-23 builds on these ideals and has proposed several new initiatives for urban transport and urban development. 

Here’s our take on what these proposals could do, why we’re glad for some, and what we recommend for others.

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An amount of Rs.322 crore has been provided towards post-matric scholarship for Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities students and an amount of Rs.162 crore towards supply of free bicycles, in this Budget.

Why we’re glad

Bicycles can enable students to easily access education and other opportunities. As India moves towards a net-zero future, it is crucial that we encourage low-to-zero emission modes such as walking, cycling, and public transport.

Along with the free bicycles, it is also important to provide the right ecosystem and infrastructure that support cycling, not just for students but for everyone! Creating a network of safe cycle lanes, making junctions safer, developing cycling-friendly neighborhoods, allocating cycle parking stands, and providing affordable cycle repairs are a few steps that cities can take.

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The Government will develop 500 parks to create public recreational spaces and enhance the quality of life in urban areas.

Why we’re glad

Chennai currently has less than 10% of the national standard of open space per person.*

Since COVID-19, there’s been great emphasis on protecting and preserving our physical and mental health, and parks enable and maintain active lifestyles. Not just that, parks and green spaces help boost local economies, revitalize neighborhoods, lower crime, and also prevent flooding.

* Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines

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The 50-metre wide stretch of land adjoining the eastern side of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) from Minjur to Vandalur with a length of 62 kms will be developed as a Development Corridor.

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This presents a unique opportunity to design safe, compact, vibrant, and mixed-use neighbourhoods that connect people with work and play without the hassle of long commutes.

Developing robust local area plans with a well-designed network of walking, cycling, and public transport facilities that reduce dependence on personal motor vehicles can go a long way in creating and sustaining healthy and happy communities.

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In order to encourage transit-oriented development (TOD) in certain corridors such as metro rail, suburban rail, national highways and bye pass roads, the Government has decided to raise the existing Floor Space Index (FSI) in adjoining areas.

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TOD brings people, activities, buildings, and public spaces together, with shorter walking and cycling connections between them and high-quality public transport to the rest of the city. When TOD planning is inclusive, people of all ages, genders, abilities, and income levels thrive. We hope that CMDA’s Third Master Plan will achieve that in Chennai!

While the initiative is great, TOD is easier conceptualised than implemented. For a successful TOD, interdisciplinary elements such as infrastructure, street, building planning, and design, building codes, regulation reform, and finance must be aligned. This requires participation from decision & policymakers, experts, developers & investors, future residents, and civic organisations.

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As a result of the announcement by the Hon’ble Chief Minister to provide free bus service to women, the share of women passengers has increased from 40 per cent to 61 per cent. The scheme has had a huge impact on the socio-economic status of women. In the Budget, Rs.1,520 crore will be provided as subsidies towards free bus travel for women, Rs.928 crore as subsidy for student concession in bus fare and Rs.1,300 crore as diesel subsidy.

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The scheme has empowered several women, transgender people, and persons with disabilities. In Chennai’s MTC Ordinary Bus services alone, they have benefitted with over 16.3 crore free tickets.

However, these buses tend to be overcrowded, and clearly, we need more frequent Ordinary Services. By using ITDP India’s People-Near-Transit Analysis Methodology, TN cities can map frequent bus services and their coverage, understand the gaps, and augment the fleet accordingly. Our analysis shows that 4 out of 10 people in Chennai do not have access to frequent buses within a 10-min walking distance.

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Under the ‘Climate-Friendly Modernisation of Buses in Major Cities of Tamil Nadu’ Project being implemented with KfW assistance, 2,213 BS-VI new diesel buses and 500 new electric buses will be procured.

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Expanding our fleet with over 2700 low-to-zero emissions buses is a great start, but we still need many more buses. As per MoHUA’s benchmark of 60 buses/lakh population, Tamil Nadu’s 8 major cities (Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur & Tirunelveli) need an additional 12,900 buses (including 4,600 buses as a replacement for the old fleet).

However, amidst the unending traffic caused by cars and motorcycles, bus passengers suffer too. What if our buses could move in their own lane, separate from all that congestion? More on this in our next recommendation.

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To decongest the increasing traffic on the East Coast Road, it is necessary to widen the four-lane road up to Akkarai as a six-lane road…The remaining stretches covering Neelangarai, Injambakkam and Sholinganallur villages will be widened to six-lane at a cost of Rs.135 crore.

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Data shows that widening roads does not reduce traffic congestion, rather increases it.

Wide roads attract more vehicles and high speeds-the biggest reason for road crash deaths in Tamil Nadu. Chennai must use traffic calming methods, create well-designed footpaths & cycle lanes, provide crossings, refuge islands, and other facilities to ensure that the ECR stretch is safe and comfortable for all.

Instead of adding more lanes for cars and two-wheelers, Chennai should focus on creating quick-to-install ‘dedicated lanes’ for buses. These bus lanes reduce travel time by 20-30% during peak hour traffic, and help increase ridership and revenue (Bangalore’s NIMBUS saw a 64% increase in ticketing revenue!).

Our Verdict

Last year, the TN Budget outlined several reformative initiatives, and Budget 22-23 continues to do that with progressive proposals- such as TOD planning, free cycle schemes, more parks and open spaces, subsidies for bus travel, and more green & clean buses.

ITDP India is committed to supporting Tamil Nadu in its transformation and helping create healthy streets and healthy cities all across the state. We are hopeful that Tamil Nadu’s cities will leverage the initiatives announced in the budget, and become thriving centres for life. 

Over the last two decades, India has seen a steady decline in public transport ridership, especially that of buses. Growing incomes and the need for speed and comfort have led people to shift to personal motor vehicles (PMVs); while the ones who cannot afford this shift continue to deal with poor bus services. Our streets are a cacophonous sea of vehicles—with LOTS of cars and two-wheelers, dotted here and there with just a few buses, all trying to outrun each other but clearly, there is no space. The result? Everyone’s stuck in endless traffic—that’s choking our streets, and our lungs too.

What can cities do to tackle this burgeoning issue, that’s costing us time, money, and lives? What attractive alternatives can cities present, so people can ditch their cars and two-wheelers and shift to other low-carbon modes? And most importantly, how can public transport, especially buses, become that alternative for PMV users, and the default choice for everyone else?

Enter Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge. An initiative by the Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the Challenge aims to make public transport safe, reliable, and affordable for everyone—including women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities—so they can comfortably access work, education, and other opportunities.

Kickstarted in April’21 and spanning across two years, the Challenge focuses on digital innovation in public transport and brings together cities, citizens, and startups to develop solutions in key areas, such as fare products and payment solutions; service planning and monitoring; and passenger Information and interaction. More than 130 Indian cities signed up to participate in the Challenge!

Why collaborate with Startups

The Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge aims to make the most of the talent within India’s startup ecosystem—the third-largest in the world. This year, Honourable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi even dedicated 16th January as ‘National Startup Day’, acknowledging the immense potential that startup innovations have. The public transport sector, too, stands to greatly benefit from these innovations.

The Challenge will connect cities to startups with the ability to develop robust contextual solutions for public transport, and conduct large-scale pilots in at least 10 cities. Startups and cities will also receive guidance from experts and feedback from citizens. The best solutions shall also be implemented by multiple cities across India, through an easy procurement process.

Stages of the Challenge

The Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge has three Stages—

Stage 1 is for problem identification—where cities, with the support of citizens and NGOs, identify key recurring problems that citizens and public transport operators face.

Stage 2 is for solution generation—where startups develop prototypes of solutions to improve public transport with inputs from cities, experts, & NGOs.

Stage 3 is for pilot testing—where cities engage startups for large-scale pilots and refine the solutions based on citizen feedback.

Stage 1

Set up of public transport task-forces in 99+ cities

Stage 1 witnessed the formation of 99 Transport4All Task Force—that brings together all stakeholders and departments responsible for public transport in the city into one big collective. These include the Municipal Corporation, Smart City Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), City Bus Undertaking, Metro and Suburban Rail, Regional transport office, Traffic Police, Road Owning Agencies, IPT unions, NGOs, and Academic Institutes working in the field of sustainable mobility. The Task Force ensures a fast, collaborative, and integrated decision-making process.

Over 2.4 lakh survey responses to identify problem statements

Stage 1 saw cities join forces with more than 200 NGOs for an intense data collection exercise—the largest of its kind in India — to understand from citizens and public transport operators the problems that they experience. ITDP India guided cities with survey questionnaires, trained NGOs and officials on how to conduct these surveys, and also provided easy-to-use Excel templates to analyze the data.

45 cities surveyed more than 2 lakh citizens—of varying genders, age groups, abilities, and socio-economic status—and recorded the issues they faced. Cities and NGOs surveyed 17,000 bus drivers and conductors to know their operational difficulties. Through surveys and in-person interviews, they also noted the concerns of the 25,000 informal public transport drivers, a group that is often ignored in India’s transport planning. Cities used insights from these surveys and consultations to frame five key problem statements in consultation with the Task Force.

What comes next

In Stage 2 of the Challenge, cities will engage with startups to create solutions for the shortlisted problem statements. Startups will develop and beta-test prototypes with inputs from cities and NGOs. A jury consisting of a panel of experts will identify 1-2 winners for each problem statement, based on how well their solutions cater to the present and future needs of citizens.

Winning startups will receive an award of ₹10 lakhs per solution from MoHUA and will be eligible to pilot their solutions in interested cities in Stage 3. Cities will procure the services of startups for a large-scale pilot and refine the solutions based on citizens’ and experts’ feedback.

Through the Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge, cities have a unique opportunity to reimagine and reform their public transport system, where fares would no longer be a barrier to travel and everyone can afford it, and public transport would no longer be the last, but the first choice of all.

After all, like Enrique Penalosa, Former Mayor of Bogota, rightly points out, “A developed country is not a place where the poor use cars, it’s where the rich use public transportation.”

We’d like to acknowledge the leadership of the Ministry of Housing and Affairs, Smart Cities Mission, and Urban Transport—hosts for the Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge. We thank our knowledge partners, the World Bank, for bringing their global technical expertise in digital innovation and guiding startups and cities. We also thank the technology platform partners, Cix and Startup India, for engaging with startups and for providing a platform for cities and startups to collaborate easily. 

As Co-host and Coordinator for the Challenge, ITDP India provides technical and communication expertise to cities, facilitates capacity-building workshops and one-on-one sessions with them, and sets up peer-learning platforms so cities can learn from one another.

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Written by: Aishwarya Soni
Edited by: Kashmira Dubash
With inputs from Vaishali Singh

With the intent to develop a long term behavioural change in citizens towards taking up walking & cycling and to make city leaders as walking and cycling champions in each city, Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched two unique initiatives for the first time: “Freedom2Walk&Cycle Challenge for City Leaders” & “Inter-City Freedom2Walk&Cycle Challenge for Citizens” between 1st to 26th January 2022. MoHUA hosted an online awards event on 17th February to recognise the top performing cities and city leaders in both the Challenges. The event also laid out the goals that cities from India Cycles4Change, Streets4People & Transport4All Challenges will be working towards 2023. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) is the knowledge partner of Smart Cities Mission for the above mentioned initiatives.

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Impact of the Challenges

The City Leaders Challenge saw registration from nearly 130 city leaders from across the country, comprising of Commissioners, Additional/Joint/Deputy Commissioners, Smart City CEOs and key SPV officials who jointly clocked in nearly 47,000kms of cycling, 7000kms of walking and 2500kms of running during the Challenge! The Citizens Challenge saw an overwhelming participation from nearly 22,000 citizens from the 75 registered cities, who jointly clocked in nearly 9,80,000km of cycling, 1,82,000 km of walking and 9,350 km of running.

Awards

The awards for the City Leaders Challenge were given to the following categories for their performance between 1st to 26th Jan 2022:

1. Cities with maximum kilometers  

2. City leaders with maximum kilometers 

3. Woman city leaders with maximum kilometers 

4. City leaders with maximum time spent in activities 

5. City leaders with maximum number of activities during challenge 

6. Awards for Ministers, CEOs & Commissioners with maximum kilometers

7. Super Hero Award 

The awards for the Citizens Challenge were given to the following categories for their performance between 1st to 26th Jan 2022:

1. Cities with maximum kilometers  

2. Cities with maximum registrations

Click here to view the awardees

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Towards sustaining the momentum beyond the challenge, the participating cities are in the process of signing pledges committing towards institutionalising activities like Cycle2Work, Open Street Events, Pedestrian Days and physical infrastructure to improve walking and cycling in cities.

18 Cities – Ajmer, Nashik, Rajkot, Lucknow, Kalyan Dombivli, Bhubaneswar, Jabalpur, Tumakuru, Surat, Valsad, Dahod, Nagpur, Ranchi, Chandigarh, Kakinada, Ujjain, Pimpri Chinchwad, Indore have signed the pledges so far. Aurangabad, Jaipur, Davanagere, Sagar, Pune are in the process.

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Quotes from city leaders on the Freedom2Walk&Cycle Challenge

I have started cycling more often to work and for recreation over the last couple of years. Not only have I become more physically and mentally fit, it has given me a different perspective towards looking at the city and its needs. Cycling is a humble yet very powerful tool that can transform the cities we live in. I urge all city leaders and citizens to experience their cities through walk and cycle and become champions who inspire others

Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary, Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA

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The Challenge is an excellent initiative that brought me closer to my old love, cycling. The consistency of the other participants and the appreciation from my fellow colleagues has been motivating me every single day to clock in a ride. I also urge my fellow women leaders to break the stereotypes and take to cycling. It has empowered me and I’m sure it will do so for you too. Let’s seek inspiration from Serena Williams, Krishna Punia, Mithali Raj, PV Sindhu and let’s choose to be more fit, enjoy the thrill, and contribute to making the planet green.

Padmini Singh, Chief Account Officer, ASCL, Ajmer

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I am extremely grateful for the Freedom to Walk & Cycle Challenge for having triggered a regular walking habit and I look forward to continuing the walks even after the Challenge is complete! Overall, walking is a great solution for physical and mental health and I see the benefits first hand. It keeps my mind agile, fresh, active and focussed throughout the entire day! Over and above this, it is also a good environmental solution in times of climate change.Walking and cycling short distances to work, or to run small errands is absolutely doable by everyone. I urge my fellow colleagues, friends, other city leaders as well as citizens to pick up this habit as a way of life.

Pallavi Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner, Kalyan Dombivli

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Initiatives like these challenges for city leaders and citizens have the potential to change your life and the culture of your city. My personal journey of walking and cycling started in 2014 through a similar official assignment and it has been one of my best decisions! It improved my physical fitness and my productivity at work.  I have seen a huge impact of such interventions in the way people have responded to running, walking or cycling and it has also helped in bringing city leaders & citizens closer! I would strongly urge my fellow city officials and citizens to take up walking and cycling. Let’s start walking and commuting to work on cycle whenever possible and let’s make a difference together.

Chetan Nandani, CEO Rajkot Smart City Development Ltd (RSCDL) & Dy. Municipal Commissioner, Rajkot Municipal Corporation

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It’s been heartening to see how citizens and city leaders embraced the two national level challenges and that nearly 15 cities have already signed pledges committing to institutionalisng initiatives that promote walking and cycling. It is campaigns like these that help instill long term behavioral change in citizens towards taking up walking & cycling!

Aswathy Dilip, South Asia Director, Institute for Transportation & Development Policy

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From international leaders being an inspiration for us walking and cycling to work, our leaders are now being an inspiration worldwide! Being part of the coordinating team for the challenges, it was inspiring for us to see the level of participation and excitement that cities and city leaders showed for the two national level challenges! The impact numbers and experiences shared by city leaders reflect the success of this initiative.

A V Venugopal, Deputy Manager – Healthy Streets & Partnerships, ITDP India

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Video testimonials from city leaders