1 May 2020, Bengaluru: Bounce, India’s first and fastest growing dockless shared mobility player is working with the Bengaluru Railway Division to provide its COVID warriors with commute options to reach work in time during lockdown. Under the ScooterHero initiative, over 1000 idle two-wheelers have been registered on the Bounce platform and they will be deployed free of charge to the Railway staff. This is to help them to continue their untiring work of ensuring sanitation and maintenance of the Bengaluru Railway.
The national lockdown has restricted movement within cities, to contain the outbreak of the pandemic. However, many delivery executives, healthcare workers, civic authorities, the Police, and railway employees are working relentlessly to ensure people have basic necessities and are taken care of, in these challenging times. Currently, these frontline warriors are facing difficulty in commuting within the city, given only skeletal public transportation service is operational.
“With the nation-wide lockdown, the railway is playing a key role in ensuring essential goods are transported across the country. However, a number of their employees are facing hardship commuting, with some of them having to even walk long distances to reach their place of work. These unnamed warriors are playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus, while ensuring there is no breakdown of essential services. We would like to ease transportation hassles for the Railway employees of namma oru, by giving them access to ScooterHero vehicles free of cost for their daily commute.” said Anil Giriraj, Co-founder and CEO of Bounce.
“Many of us who don’t live in or near the quarters have to travel some distance to reach our workplace. The lockdown removed most forms of transport. So, unless we had our own vehicle, we ended up walking for several kms. Bounce providing vehicles, will help us reach easily and safely.” said Raghuram (name changed) an employee with the Railway.
Commenting on this association, Raushan Kumar, DCM of South Western Railway Zone said, “Though there is lockdown in the city due to the unprecedented pandemic, it is important to ensure supply and availability of sufficient food grains, medicines, medical equipment and other essential commodities. The Railway has been running trains for transportation of these goods, since day one of the lockdown. Our field staff operate these trains and to facilitate their commute, we daily run 10 pairs of ‘Workmen Special Train’; only limited staffs are allowed to travel, taking all the precautions and norms of social distancing. The ScooterHero initiative will enable seamless first mile – last mile connectivity for staffs who travel by the Workmen Special Train. We have been working with Bounce since December 2019 and in this difficult time, they have shown a kind gesture to help with the transportation issues for our frontline staff. This motivates all of us to fight together, against the pandemic.”
The ScooterHero initiative has got more than 1000 bikes registered within 3 days of it being announced. People, mostly from Bengaluru and Hyderabad, have registered their idle scooters and bikes, to aid COVID warriors in their commute. Bounce dockless service will resume in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, once the nation-wide lockdown is lifted. Users are urged to follow all government directives and stay at home, only to step out for essentials, and follow precautionary measures of wearing masks at all times and maintain social distancing, till we tide over the pandemic.
