RAJ KUMAR
Sanyam Gandhi is a 25-yr-old entrepreneur who after completing his engineering studies in Germany returned to India in 2016 and started his bicycle-sharing company, Chartered Bike. As many as 1200 bicycles of his company can be seen at 110 stations across the Jharkhand capital. Lagatar24.com had an exclusive interview with him on his business. Excepts:
Q: Please let me know about your company and in how many cities it is operational?
A: My company is Chartered Bike. It is India’s largest public bicycle sharing company, subsidiary of Chartered Speed, India’s leading passenger Mobility Company. Chartered Bike is operational in 5 cities and soon going to be present in 7 smart cities with close to 4000 pedal bikes and 500 e-bikes.
Q: From where did you take this business idea?
A: I have taken this idea from Karlsruhe in Germany where I studied. In Karlsruhe there was a bicycle sharing system where people could use an app to rent bicycles spread across the city. The idea resonated with me and when I came back to India I planned to implement it across the cities in India.
Q: At how many places have you so far implemented your ideas?
A: Starting from Bhopal in 2017, the idea so far has been implemented in Ranchi, Surat and Kolkata. In Prayagraj, Sagar and Mumbai it is under implementation process.
Q; Why did you choose tier II cities instead of Metros?
A: I chose tier II cities (“Bharat”) instead of Metros (“India”) as it made more sense to implement such systems where the city was bicycle-friendly because of shorter trip lengths, lesser traffic, and greater modal share of cycling
Q: How many bicycles does your company have?
A: So far I have 4500 bicycles stationed at 450 places. Out of 4500 bicycles, as many as 1200 are Ranchi stationed at 110 places.
Q: How many staff do you have to manage the work across the country?
A: I have so far 50 staff to manage my business across the country.
Q: In how many cities of Jharkhand has a chartered bike facility?
A: So far the chartered bike has been provided in Ranchi and an attempt is on for its introduction in Jamshedpur and Dhanbad.
Q: What are the challenges?
A: We are looking for a FAME subsidy to be applicable on our low-speed electric scooters too like it is available on normal electric scooters. Apart from this, there is no major challenge except a few incidents of vandalism and misuse.
Q: How safe is your bicycle against theft?
A: We have locks that get open after proper scanning. The scanner is connected to our server and the lock gets opened after verification of data.
