As you enter the campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, you can literally feel the drop in the temperature. The cool breeze one experiences inside the campus, even in the midst of extreme summer, is enough to convince anyone to stay on forever. All this is the result of the commuting practices which the students, faculty and now, even the visitors have adopted.
While students commute inside the campus using cycles, the faculty and visitors either use e-rickshaws or the e-car. Spread across 400 acres, the campus includes different engineering departments, research stations, hostel facility for students and an in-house residential facility for the faculty members. This initiative of eco-friendly commuting was started by the professors and students of the Transportation Engineering Department in IISc. Ashish Verma, Associate Professor of Transportation Systems Engineering, says, "Commuting on campus using cycles has been in practice for many years now. Earlier, there was the PEDL service offered by Zoomcar, but they stopped providing it. Now, we have Bounce (a smart mobility solutions provider) that initiated the service last month. They provided around 200 bicycles and set up 30 parking stations inside the campus. Whenever a student wants to ride a cycle, they can download the company's app and scan the QR code on the cycle. As soon as they reach their destination, they can park the cycle at a nearby parking station. They are charged `3 for every 10 minutes. Now, we are planning to offer subscription plans to our students."
According to Verma, this service provided by Bounce is the best solution to not just reduce the pollution inside the campus, it also solves another problem. "A few UG and PG students used to buy a cycle and upon completing their graduation, they would just abandon it here. Ultimately, it resulted in many cycles piling up leading to junk collection. Now, there is no need for students to buy their own cycles. They can just use Bounce cycles," explains Verma, adding that, "College students have checked the temperature in the premises and it always tends to be two to three degree cooler than the city outside."
Similar to this, they have introduced two more initiatives for visitors and faculty members, e-rickshaws and e-cars provided by Transvahan Technologies India, an organisation which, among many other things, manfactures electric vehicles. There are around 10 rickshaws and one electric car on campus. While the e-rickshaw can easily accommodate a group of ten, the car can accommodate four commuters. One can hop on to the rickshaw at any time for a cost of Rs 5. Plus, the e-rickshaw also has charging stations. But the electric car service can be availed only via a phone call. Students and professors have posted the phone number on the campus boards. This service comes for as less as Rs 40.