Bicycle sharing service, JoBike, started its operation in Dhaka on Saturday just one year after its introduction in the tourist city of Cox’s Bazar last January.
The country’s first two-wheeler on demand will now be available in Mirpur DOHS (Defense Officers Housing Society) on a pilot basis started with 50 bicycles, said a Jobike handout on Sunday.
Top officials of Mirpur DOHS were present at the launching ceremony in the residential area in the capital while Jobike Chief Executive Mehedi Reza briefed about the innovative city services.
Among others, Mirpur DOHS Society President Brig Gen Mahfuzul Haque, General Secretary retired Lt Col U Kan Thein, DOHS Youth Club President Tanzeem Mashroor and General Secretary Hasan Zarif Abrar, Jobike Co-founders Khan Helaluzzamna Ayon and Azharul Qudrat Khan Rumon were present on the occasion.
Apart from Cox’s Bazar, the service has already been launched commercially in two public universities–Jahangirnagar and Chittagong.
Jobike Chief Executive Mehedi Reza said, “We got extraordinary response from our customers in those three places and that’s why we are moving to the capital and are now targeting to launch the service commercially here within two months,”
For every minute, a rider will be charged Tk 1 in Dhaka, the same as Cox’s Bazar. However, on the two university campuses, the service is being offered for Tk 3 every five minutes.
“Our plan is to make the service popular within one month in the capital and move for some residential areas like Basundhara” Mehedi Reza shared about the planning.
JoBike is a mobile application which enables users to find bicycles for use on a temporary basis. After downloading application users will have to open an account and then by scanning the QR code they can easily unlock the bicycles for use.
The JoBike application has already been downloaded 35,000 times and it is increasing every day and on average every day their bikes are being used about 3,000 times.
Currently, 100 bikes are running in Jahangirnagar University, 50 in Cox’s Bazar and another 50 in Chittagong University. However, within this week they will add another 50 bikes in Chittagong University as the demand is very high, Reza added.
JoBike also donated twenty bicycles for accelerating development works at the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, he added.
As it is a very environment friendly transport system, this kind of bicycle sharing service is very popular in different other countries like China and Singapore.