The battery-operated vehicles used to ferry athletes within the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, during Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) have found a new use.

Eighteen of the 20 vehicles will now be available for people to take a joyride when they visit the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj and the P L Deshpande Garden on Sinhagad Road.

Two of the vehicles will come in handy for garbage disposal.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had bought these vehicles for Rs 6 lakh each and had given them to the CYG organisers for transporting the athletes.

“We shall now use the 18 passenger vehicles at Katraj Zoo and P L Deshpande Garden for the visitors. The two cargo carriers will be used to shift garbage from a couple of ward offices,” said PMC garden superintendent Yashwant Khaire.

Kazveen Umrigar, director of the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, said that out of the 18 passenger vehicles, five would be made available within 10 days. “Depending on the response, we shall add more vehicles,” she said. Umrigar also added that some of these vehicles had suffered minor damage and would be repaired.

CYG that was promoted as the green games, had a four-point green agenda of preventing environmental hazards, reducing fuel consumption, reducing the number of vehicles and replacing the energy sources. The battery-operated vehicles were part of the green agenda along with CNG buses that will be run on the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Pimpri-Chinchwad.