Ride to nowhere

Bicycles for hire at Metro stations is a great idea — on paper.

Like most Delhiites living in localities where the Delhi Metro has made its grand entry, I too was enthusiastic about making my everyday commute to work a breeze. Sitting in my car, stuck in yet another horrendous traffic jam, I saw a board outside a Metro station: “Bicycles for rent”. I was overjoyed, as the station is a 10-minute walk from my office. The next day, I took the train, got down at the particular station and saw brand-new bicycles parked at the cycle stand.

The idea of not walking (even if the distance is less than a kilometre) was attractive enough for me to put up with the rush hour in the train. Personally speaking, I feel that the Delhi Metro is world-class in many aspects, one of which is that there is a customer care counter at every station.

So I walked up to the counter to enquire about how to get one of those bicycles on rent. The man behind the counter was busy listening to music on his phone, and I literally had to shout to make myself heard. “What’s the procedure for getting a bike?” I asked. A bit irritated with my unintentional yelling, he gave me a blank look and directed me to another counter.

As I made my way to the counter the irritated man directed me to, a passerby asked me “Kyon gussa ho rahe the bhaisaab?”. I could understand why the customer care executive was not at his polite best.

At the other counter, another uninterested man told me he had no clue about the bicycles and that I should come tomorrow to check on them. “But I want to rush to my work right now,” I argued. “So who’s stopping you?” he gave the obvious answer, before saying that he could not help me in any way with the bicycles. “There must be someone who can,” I persisted. “I am sorry, there’s no one to help,” he told me.

As I found myself walking past the cycle stand, I couldn’t help but think that commuters would be delighted by the idea. However, the implementation looks far from convincing. And that’s why the Delhi Metro, for all its convenience and world-class facilities, still has people complaining about it.

Score: 5/10. Full marks for the idea but zero for the actual implementation

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