BMC

cycling tracks

luxury hotels

fitness enthusiast Sonali Kulkarni

Watch: Five-stars in Mumbai far from being accommodating of cycles on premises 02:23

TRIDENT,

Trident

FOUR SEASONS,

TAJ LANDS END

JW MARRIOTT

ITC GRAND MARATHA

SAHARA STAR

HYATT

SHOT IN ARM FOR PEDAL PUSHERS

From outright refusal to giving in after much coaxing, 6 of 7 luxe hotels are far from being accommodating of cycles on premises.At a time when theis trying to promote a fitter and healthier way of life among Mumbaikars with plans for dedicated, Mumbai’s— bastions of the well-heeled and the fancy-wheeled — showed that they ill-prepared for guests who may pedal in on for a quick coffee or a meeting.Mumbai Mirror did a test ride, with actor and, at several hotels across Mumbai, and found that only one was truly welcoming of cyclists. At this midtown hotel, we were waved right through the gate, and there was even a valet who would park the cycle in a designated spot for us.The scene at the other hotels? We rarely made it past the main gate. And if we did, it was only after much argument, some cajoling and trying to reason with uniformed gatekeepers, who treated us with varying degrees of disdain because we clearly had the wrong set of wheels for their establishment.One hotel even insisted that we take our bicycle around to the employees’ parking area, and deposit it there ourselves because the regular valets had left for the day. Never mind if it was a considerable walk in the hot sun to get from the main gate to the service entrance around the side and back again.Kulkarni, who has participated in three triathlon competitions and cycles several miles every morning, offered to be the guinea pig for our ‘experiment’. In the past, Kulkarni has been stopped at the gates of a wellknown hotel, and had ugly exchanges with the staff just to be allowed in with her bicycle.“Cycling has really caught on in the city, and the hotels, instead of trying to be accommodating, make it very difficult for cyclists to visit their premises,” she says. “If I have to leave my bicycle near the gate or even outside it, because a hotel has no provision for parking, I’d rather not visit that hotel.”Kitted out in her riding gear, her head covered by a helmet and face hidden behind shades, Kulkarni, 44, visited a series of hotels, while a Mirror team tagged along to find out how hotel staff reacted to her. And it usually wasn’t a pretty picture.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nariman Point12:18The first hotel actor Sonali Kulkarni visited on her bicycle didn’t let her past the gate. “I’m sorry we don’t allow bicycles,” said the uniformed guard, and waved her to a spot just outside, suggesting she park her cycle there. “But I can’t leave my bike outside. What if someone steals it?” Kulkarni asked. “You have so much space. How about I just keep it in one corner?” The guard, though polite, did not budge. Not even when his colleague whispered, “She’s a celebrity. Let her through”.At the front desk, the staff seemed flummoxed by the idea that someone had arrived on a cycle, even though one would imagine that sitting on Marine Drive, the hotel probably gets more than its share of cyclists who come in for a quick bite.After almost 15 minutes of consultations and entreaties with many people (at least three of whom said they had to “check with seniors”), a hotel staffer finally agreed to find us a place for the bicycle.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Worli 13:00For a hotel that’s on a very busy road, with little buffer between its entrance and the street, cycling up to it was a breeze. With its clearly limited parking area, we were expecting to be told off and asked to take our cycle elsewhere. Instead, the guards who were scanning the cars with their metal detectors, not only waved us right though, but also showed us the path to take while riding our way up, so that we wouldn’t face any oncoming traffic.At the main entrance, there was a valet who offered to park Kulkarni’s bicycle for her. When she looked a little sceptical, the youngster smiled and indicated to an alcove just beyond the doorman’s podium, and said: “We get quite a few guests who come on their bicycles. We always keep them here.” As a reward for his welcome, the valet got a handshake and a heartfelt “thank you”.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bandra13:40The hotel’s considerable sprawl makes one think that Lands End can easily accommodate a bicycle. It does — but almost as an afterthought, and behind the guard room near its front entrance. The vertical bars on the sliding panel of the main gate are where guests are supposed to chain their bikes, and the guard assures that the gate is secured in place, and won’t go telescoping back into the bicycle and crush it. But for guests who want to take that chance, like Kulkarni did, it’s still a long, winding, un-shaded hike up to the main entrance.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Juhu14:10This was Kulkarni’s second time at this hotel on a bicycle and the experience wasn’t any better. A few weeks ago, the actor said she had a meeting inside the hotel and the guards flat-out refused to let her bring her bicycle in, saying the hotel didn’t allow it.She recalled that a friend from a local cycling club had a similar experience. So on Wednesday, when Kulkarni returned to the hotel, she was prepared for a fight.“I have a meeting on the upper-tier,” she told the posse of guards. “Do you really want me to leave my bike near the gate and walk up a whole level to my meeting there? It would be much easier for me to cycle to the upper level.”The guards refused to relent, and the arguments and counter-arguments continued, till a guard said, “Madam, this is the policy. Do you want me to lose my job?”----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Andheri16:50When cycling enthusiast and former Mirror journalist Alka Dhupkar wheeled her bicycle in and asked where she could park it, the guards pointed to a long ramp at one end that all the cars take to go into the underground parking area.Not only was the ramp poorly-lit, which meant cyclists going down there would have to be extremely careful to make sure they were seen by larger vehicles driving in behind them, but the slope is also too steep to navigate on a bicycle. “Can you at least find someone who can park the bike for me?” Dhupkar asked. The response was a ‘no’, of course, till we decided to approach a slightly more senior looking staffer. After about 5 minutes of arguments, he finally offers to park the cycle himself because “we don’t really have any dedicated valets for this kind of thing, only for cars”.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Domestic airport17:15The main entrance was teeming with people who had just gotten out of a conference, so there were quite a few stares when Dhupkar got off her bicycle at the gate. Clearly, bike riders are not a common sight at this five-star. Still, the staffers were a little more helpful here. After some cajoling, they agreed to take charge of the bike. “We’ll keep it in a space in the back where we allow the parking of other two-wheelers,” said a guard. “Don’t worry, madam, your bicycle will be safe and we’ll bring it around to you once you’re done with your meeting.”----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Santacruz17:40This hotel has multiple gates and entrances, but no space for bicycles. When cycling enthusiast and former Mirror journalist Alka Dhupkar tried to get a valet to take charge of a her cycle, the guards first tried to fob her off, saying the valets would soon go off duty, so locating her bike might be a problem for her later. “How does that happen in a hotel with 24x7 traffic?” Dhupkar shot back, but received no response.Finally, the guards insisted that she go around to the service entrance — the employees’ parking bay — to park the bicycle herself. “If you had come in a car or a better bicycle, we could’ve helped you,” a guard blurted out.The BMC is working on setting up a 39-km-long cycling and jogging track between Mulund and Antop Hill in Wadala. To be built along the British-era Tansa water pipeline, this tree-lined track will be one of the longest in India. The work for the Rs 300-crore project will be undertaken in phases and is expected to be opened to the public by 2019.There is also an 11-km track between NCPA and Worli that’s open to cyclists on Sundays.An experiment for a cycling track was initiated at Carter Road last year, but it failed owing to traffic issues.