Pradhan promotes 'Green Ride' through cyclothon

The event, which was held to create awareness around promotion of 'green rides' through cycles, was flagged off from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The promotion of cycling through this event is aimed at instilling socio-environmental consciousness among citizens towards the larger aim of conserving foreign exchange on fuel imports, an official statement said.

Benefits of cycling are not only limited to protect environment or fuel conservation, but it also carries huge health and fitness dividends, Pradhan was quoted as saying in the statement.

Stressing that conservation is a collective responsibility, he said it will be possible only when industries, individual citizens, organisations, oil companies and the government share the responsibility of petroleum conservation.

Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said that benefits of cycling are not only limited to protect environment or fuel conservation but it also carries huge health and fitness dividends. He further said that judicious use of various forms of energy and its conservation is a matter of vital importance to all of us for the betterment of our society and healthy environment. He said that conservation is a collective responsibility of all of us. It will be possible only when the industries, individual citizens, organizations, Oil Companies and the Government share a collective responsibility of petroleum conservation to conserve the available resources of energy and create a cleaner environment for the future generations.

Minister Pradhan appealed to all citizens to join in the movement for conserving the finite petroleum resources through practicing simple, easily implementable tips while using petroleum products in cooking, transport, agriculture and industries to extract maximum utilization and efficiency. It also helps us to save money and mitigate the adverse social, economic and environmental impacts associated with oil production and consumption which include air pollution, global warming, water pollution, dependence on import etc. Minister urged to all citizens to come together and work for building a nation that is green, environmentally clean and pollution free.

Based on the distance to be covered, the Cyclothon featured four categories – Elite (Men – 45 km/women-27 km), Amateur (27 km), Open and the popular Green Ride. While the Elite and Amateur categories were for serious cyclists, the 9 km Open and the 5 km Green Rides allowed participants the experience the joy of cycling, while promoting fuel conservation, with the underlying message of reducing excessive dependency on oil for a cleaner and greener environment.

The winner in the Elite (Men) category was Satbir Singh, while T Manorama Devi won Elite Women's championship. The Cyclothon, under the banner of Saksham Pedal Delhi, was organised by Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA). Additional 76 such cyclothons are planned to be organised pan-India over the next two months.