For Bhagyashree Mahale, Pooja Bhagat and Ashwini Warpe in class X of Amruteshwar High school in Kondur village of Mulshi, a bicycle means an added motivation to go to school. The three girls used to walk more than six kilometers every day to reach school till they were handed over the cycles as part of the Bicycle project.

The project aims at donating second hand bicycles to needy rural school children. It received tremendous response from Pune as 23 students from Amruteshwar Highschool and 38 from Vinzaidevi Highschool in Tamhini village were handed over the bicycles on Saturday. "This is the first time that cycles have been collected and handed over from Pune," said Hemant Chhabra who had initiated the project in Mumbai.

"We started a collection centre in Pune in July and spread the word amongst our family and friends," said Kiran Deolalkar, Pune coordinator of the project who works with SAP India. A total of 90 bicycles have been collected in the past two months, of which 61 were handed over to children in Mulshi on Saturday.

All the students are in class VIII, IX and X and have been selected on four-point criteria. Firstly, the students must be from a financially weaker section, regular in school, have passed in all subjects and are staying at least 3 kilometers away from school. "The two schools are located in tribal areas and students walked seven to eight kilometers to reach school. Their parents are agricultural labourers in Mulshi," said Avinash Temghare, subject officer with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan who helped in identifying the schools.

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