In a couple of months from now, the city may see a new bicycle sharing service. According to sources in the Coimbatore Corporation, the civic body has begun negotiations with a company that has evinced interest to launch service in the city.
The move comes close on the heels of the exit of 'ofo', a company that launched its service in and around R.S. Puram and wound up a couple of months ago after six months of trial period.
Sources say another round of negotiations will take place shortly with the company representatives, where it will be decided where they will operate, the number of bicycles they will launch and other details.
ADVERTISEMENT
This again, will be for six months or so after which based on mutual consent, the civic body will extend permission for the company to operate in the city.
The civic body is looking at an area other than R.S. Puram for launching the service. The sources point out that the city's response to bicycle sharing by ofo was better than expected and vandalism was less than expected. But hoarding of bicycles was a major concern. The sources add that based on the experience gained from the bicycle sharing experiment, the Corporation is looking at facilitating a round-the-year bicycle service for the city by going in for a revenue sharing model. While the bicycle service provider will get to advertise in the bicycles, the company will have to share a part of the revenue gained by advertising with the Corporation.