Explore rich history of Mysuru on e-bikes

Soon, tourists visiting the heritage city, can travel, understand and unearth the rich history of Mysuru on battery-operated e-bikes. After Goa, Pondicherry and Gujarat, Mysuru will be the first city in Karnataka to offer electric bikes to tourists, launched by B:Live, India’s first electric vehicle tourism initiative.

Most of the people visiting Mysuru city have an itinerary and return after visiting popular tourist spots like Mysuru Palace, Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, Brindavan Gardens and temples. In an effort to introduce the multi-cultural side of Mysuru to tourists and to make them experience the vibrancy of the city of Palaces, a city-based start up company ExpiTours, in association with B:Live, has introduced e-bikes, battery-operated bicycles, for adventure lovers.

Sandeep Mukherjee, COO and co-founder of B:Live, said that tourists will be offered experiential tours on electric bikes to showcase the best of art, culture and heritage of Mysuru.

“Our aim is to provide a clean and green mode of transport to tourists to help reduce air pollution by tourist vehicles. The participants can see the real Mysuru,” he said.

Official launch

“Though e-bikes were launched commercially during Dasara, it would be officially launched in two weeks. It will be a guided tour, led by persons who have complete knowledge about Mysuru. The tourists would be introduced to culture, food and art of Mysuru. International technology is adopted and the e-bikes are designed in India. A person would be charged Rs 2,000, which includes one meal and a lot of fun,” he said.

Speaking to DH, V Rohith, founder of ExpiTours, said, “The start-up had a vision to promote sustainable and eco-friendly tourism. e-bikes can be pedalled and also run on battery operating system. India’s first e-bike tours, founded by Sandeep Mukherjee and Samarth Kholkar, helped to start this venture, with B:Live as official partner. Besides Mysuru, we have plans to expand it to Madikeri and Hampi.”

Calling it an experiential tour, Rohith said that it will be of three hours duration. “The start-up has created three hubs for tourists willing to take a tour, at Grand Mercure, Windflower Resorts and Radisson Blu. The tourists will be accompanied by a guide, who will introduce them to the architectural grandeur of the city,” he said.

ExpiTours, which started with eight bikes two weeks ago, has added 10 more e-bikes to its fleet. This is not limited for Dasara, but, will continue throughout the year, said Rohith.