Ahmedabad: How is it to cycle on Ahmedabad’s roads? Fraught with risks due to unruly traffic, congested roads and very few dedicated lanes for bicyclists. Where there are tracks, there are also encroachments, damage, vehicles or neglect, that force cyclists to use the main thoroughfares instead. Many have been injured or have lost their lives as a result. It’s election year in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). Will the promise of laying dedicated cycling tracks go around in circles yet again? After two decades and allocation of crores of rupees, elected representatives have failed to set into uninterrupted motion this basic amenity, and a green step towards environmental sustainability, say experts.AMC officials said that the Centre, under its Amrut and Smart City schemes, promoted cycling to reduce air pollution in Ahmedabad and allocated funds. Under Amrut, the civic body in 2019 green-lit a Rs 22.7-crore project to develop stretches with cycling tracks from Keshavbaug Party Plot to Pakwan Crossroads, from Judges Bunglow Crossroads to NIFD Circle, and from Sanjivani Hospital in Vastrapur to the gurdwara on SG Highway.The stretches from Judges Bunglow Crossroads to NIFD Circle and from Sanjivani Hospital to the gurdwara were completed for Rs 5.50 crore. But the good news for cyclists was short lived. The track soon turned into a parking area, and AMC, instead of correcting this wrong by vehicle owners, shelved the plan it had for the other stretch under the project. The result: No track, and Rs 5.50 crore of taxpayers’ money down the drain. An AMC official, requesting anonymity, said, “The remaining central grant did not come.”In April 2023, the issue of rampant encroachments on tracks in the city’s east and west came up at AMC’s standing committee meeting. Again, the decision taken didn’t right the wrong. Instead, it was decided to remove entire stretches of cycling tracks along BRTS corridors as well as the newly built ones in Anandnagar, Prahladnagar and Bodakdev. This has placed Ahmedabad among the cities with the lowest proportions of functional cycling infrastructure. “Today, less than 5km of cycling lanes remain usable, with existing infrastructure either having deteriorated or vanished,” said another senior AMC official. Experts say AMC has never taken a practical approach to cycle tracks which has largely discouraged cyclists from using them. AMC’s Rs 405-crore Iconic Roads project for seven stretches has no room for a cycling track planning. Neither does the Rs 334-crore precinct area development project that will cover four roads.
