LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to introduce the country’s first app-based electric motorbike rental service, saying it will simultaneously help tackle the city’s chronic last-mile connectivity gap and its worsening air quality crisis.

Under the scheme, 10,000 e-bikes and 300 docking and charging stations will be deployed across the city in the first phase, with residents able to hire a bike within seconds through a dedicated mobile application.

“The initiative is being developed under the government’s Green Mobility Programme and will require its final approval before formal launch,” Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department Secretary Noorul Amin Mengal said while presiding over a meeting here on Monday.

“According to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s vision, we are introducing modern schemes to reduce smog and pollution. This is not a merely transport initiative, it is an environmental commitment. This is one of our most concrete steps in that direction,” he said.

Docking stations will be strategically placed at key residential and commercial areas, with a particular focus on connectivity to existing public transport hubs.

“The students, daily-wage workers, and office commuters stand to benefit most — groups for whom fuel costs and transport delays represent a genuine economic burden.”

As the Horticulture Agency Lahore would identify and provide land for docking and charging infrastructure, several other institutions are expected to join the effort, including the Lahore Parking Company, transport department, the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA), and other relevant departments, Mengal said and added that diverting even a fraction of short-distance petrol-powered journeys to electric bikes could yield thousands of tonnes of avoided carbon emissions annually.

“Beyond carbon reduction, planners anticipate a measurable decline in traffic congestion, fuel expenditure, and noise pollution — benefits they describe as compounding over time as the network matures.”

He said that minors would be barred from registering with the application.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2026