Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today participated in a 5-km cyclothon that saw participation from around 5,000 people, including actor Farhan Akhtar and sports personalities.
The event, which was held to create awareness around promotion of 'green rides' through cycles, was flagged off from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The promotion of cycling through this event is aimed at instilling socio-environmental consciousness among citizens towards the larger aim of conserving foreign exchange on fuel imports, an official statement said.
Benefits of cycling are not only limited to protect environment or fuel conservation, but it also carries huge health and fitness dividends, Pradhan was quoted as saying in the statement.
Stressing that conservation is a collective responsibility, he said it will be possible only when industries, individual citizens, organisations, oil companies and the government share the responsibility of petroleum conservation.
Pradhan appealed to citizens to join in the movement for conserving the finite petroleum resources and urged them to work towards building a nation that is green, environmentally clean and pollution free.
Based on the distance to be covered, the cyclothon featured four categories Elite (Men45 km/women-27 km), Amateur (27 km), Open and the popular Green Ride.
The winner in the Elite (Men) category was Satbir Singh, while T Manorama Devi won Elite Women's championship.
The Cyclothon, under the banner of Saksham Pedal Delhi, was organised by Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA). Additional 76 such cyclothons are planned to be organised pan-India over the next two months.
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