The Kathmandu Cycle City 2020 group, a youth group, which has taken an initiative to make Kathmandu a cycle-friendly city by 2020, organised a talk programme at CV Raman Auditorium, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel on October 11. At the programme `Cycle: An Eco-Friendly Means of Transport’, Dr Bhola Thapa, Dean, School of Engineering, and Dr Panna Thapa, Dean, School of Science, felicitated world cyclist Puskar Shah, who was also the chief guest of the programme.
Cyclist Shah, who recently completed his 11-year-long world tour of 150 countries, shared his sweet and bitter experiences at the event. He further explained about the benefits of using a bicycle and also assured to help the group. Constituent Assembly members, student leaders and environmentalists were also present at the programme.
The 10-year-long ambitious programme to promote the cycling culture is expected to focus not only on multiplying the number of cycle users but also on developing safe and sound infrastructure for cycling. The project also intends to make bike users, who use bikes even to travel very short distances, use cycles. To develop cycling as one of the most used transport choices, the project will use various trainings to encourage people.
The youth group was formed with an aim to improve the quality of environment, health and transportation infrastructure by promoting the use of eco-friendly means of transport, bicycle.
To create a cycle-friendly environment around the city and encourage people from all classes to use cycles is also one of the plans of this group.
The members of this group see cycling as a sustainable and viable means of urban transportation and aspire to make it happen in reality.
The cycling promotion campaign includes a series of activities like formation of lo cal cycling clubs and advocacy for cycling, which will motivate people to use bicycles more. The group also plans to celebrate Kathmandu Cycle Day 09 on November 21 by organising a cycle rally.