DHAKA, Oct 16, 2019 (BSS) – Bangladesh’s first mobile application based
bicycle service ‘JoBike’ today started its journey on Dhaka University (DU)
campus amid festivity after one-week trial service.
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 after scanning the QR code they can easily avail bicycles
for use.
Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) took the initiative to
launch the service titled “DU Chakkar” initially with 100 bikes and the
numbers of bikes will be increased within two months as per students demand.
DU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman inaugurated the service at a
programme held at Teacher-Student Centre (DU).
Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel was present
at the launching ceremony with DUCSU Students’ Transport Secretary Shams E
Noman in the chair.
“It is a great initiative of DUCSU and students will be benefited from the
bicycle service,” said the VC.
Welcoming the DUCSU leaders for the initiative, Deputy Minister for
Education Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel said, “Leaderships are meant to
work for the welfare of students, not to enjoy luxurious life.”
DUCSU Student Transport Secretary Shams-E-Noman said, “Introducing JoBike
service for the students was included in my election manifesto. We want
carbon free campus and it can be the first step of this mission of making the
campus free from carbon.”
Students will enjoy first five minutes of ride at Taka 2.5 while they have
to pay Taka 0.40 for per minute travel.
JoBike Founder Mehedi Reza, a former product operations manager at Alibaba
Group, thanked all the people concerned and said, “It was my first dream to
introduce the Jobike service in Bangladesh and second one was to introduce it
at DU, now my dream came true.”
JoBike — bicycle sharing app — started its journey from the tourist hub
city of Cox’s Bazar in January 2018. The service is now also available at
Jahangirnagar University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and
the Mirpur DOHS area of Dhaka.