LTA sells shared bikes for $5.00 each, donates nearly $30k to charity

Almost 6,000 shared bikes that were once indiscriminately parked or abandoned around Singapore will have new owners - needy students in Myanmar.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has sold 5,999 bikes, at $5.00 each, to local bike-sharing firm Anywheel, The Straits Times has learnt.

Anywheel will be working with a charity in Myanmar to donate the bikes, while LTA will channel the proceeds of nearly $30,000 to its charity fund.

Documents on government procurement portal GeBIZ showed that the LTA had put up an announcement for the sale of devices for export on 10 July. It was not specified what the devices were.

In response to queries from ST last week, the LTA said it was selling the bicycles it had in storage which it had picked up from public places after they had been found parked indiscriminately or abandoned.

LTA added that the money received from the sale will be donated to the LTA Cares Fund. The fund was created to help financially and physically disadvantaged working adults and students with their transport needs.

Anywheel's bid was the highest of the three that LTA received. The firm's founder Htay Aung told The Straits Times on Wednesday (14 August) that the majority of the bikes sold by LTA belonged to ofo, whose licence was cancelled in April after it missed deadlines to comply with regulations.

Mr. Htay Aung, a Myanmar national, said his firm and Lesswalk have agreed to split the costs of shipping and refurbishing the bikes equally. They expect the cost of each bike to come up to between $40 and $50 eventually, and hopes to start distributing them in two months.

Lesswalk was founded by Singapore-educated entrepreneur Mike Than Tun Win, who spent almost 18 years in Singapore.

The charity had previously bought 10,000 unused shared bikes from third-parties like warehouse operators. It started giving them out to students in June, and all bikes are slated to be given out by the year's end.

Mr. Htay Aung said, "I think it is important for us to work together to best help the students. From Anywheel's perspective, we know that some people have mismanaged shared bike operations, but we wanted to make the point that these bikes can be reused for a good purpose."

Of LTA's decision to donate the bikes to its charity fund, Mr. Htay Aung said, "It is amazing if they do that; we would be extremely happy with it. Both they and we would be making donations in this case. It is a win-win situation for everyone."