Pool’em up

The content on this website is strictly the property of Insight and the Students’ Gymkhana IIT Bombay. If you wish to reproduce any content herein, please contact us:
Chief Editors: Rishabh Israni, Chintan Savla
Mail to: insight@iitb.ac.in

A major manifesto point which has been discussed over the past two General Secretary Hostel Affairs’ tenures finally saw the light of the day last week. Albeit in its pilot form, cycle pooling is a major step towards the campus becoming more sustainable and energy efficient.

The cycle pooling plan has undergone a lot of structural changes. Starting with Sarthak Agarwal’s (GSHA 2015-16) tenure, the initial plan was to introduce a pooling system with cycle stands equally dispersed in the hostel area and likewise in the academic area. A cycle could be issued and dropped at any stand. A mobile application was made in the earnest. However, due to certain logistical issues this idea had to be scrapped. Through a crowdfunding campaign run by IITB Monsoon Run, 100 cycles were donated to the campus. These cycles were stored in Hostel 3 (Sarthak’s hostel and availability of space, hence). However, due to delayed implementation of the project, the condition of the cycles deteriorated.

Following into Osama Adil’s (GSHA 2016-17) tenure and this was again in discussion. A new plan was designed for execution. It was proposed in the HGSC meet that hostels come forward and take initiative. Since the initiative was technically started with H3, it was only time the Hostel 3 council took initiative. 20 of the available cycles were repaired and it was decided to start the pilot run with 5 cycles. A common android phone was designated, for issuing a cycle, to be kept with the security. This phone was made available through the hostel amenities fund. The process for issuing cycle’s is explained below. Hostel 3 plans to extend this to 25 cycles. The remaining cycles, which are in a bad condition are in a contention to be exchanged. These would be added to the hostel repository of cycles. The cycles will be the institute’s property and not the individual hostels.

On asking the new GSHA, Ashish Kumar, about his plans for extending this program, he said, “In the coming time, we will try to increase the number of hostels involved in the pooling and if possible would also like to set up cycle pooling stands in the academic area. Right now the focus is majorly on the hostel area.”

The issuing rules and process put into place right now are as follows:

Rules for Issuing:

1. The cycle can be issued for 180 minutes and the student has to return the cycle within the allotted time.
2. The student who fails to return in the allotted time will be fined from the mess account according to the given details.
a. Rs 5 per hour up to the first 7 hours of overdue time.
b. Rs 10 per hour from the 8th hour to the end of the overdue time.
3. The fine will be deducted from the mess account after every 2 months.
4. The fine will be used for the maintenance of the cycles under this system.
5. If the cycle has some repair after issuing, students are to submit the particular cycle key and report the same in the cycle repair book in the security desk.

Issuing and returning procedure

1. Open the “Key Issual system” application in the android device
2. Tap on the “Issue item”.
3. Place your Institute ID Card on the back side of the android device in order to scan your details.
4. Similarly place the cycle key on the back side of the android device to scan the cycle details.
5. Click forward, the cycle has been issued successfully.
6. For returning Go to “Key issual system” application and Tap on the “Return item” and then follow steps 3-5.

This is indeed a great precedent for other hostels to follow and contribute towards making the campus more sustainable.