With the hectic work and school life and no time for any exercise riding a bicycle to the office or school is the new trend. People have started forming cycle groups and they set out for long bike rides in the wee hours. Unfortunately, we do not have any cycle parking in our country so riding a bicycle at the office hours is dangerous. But Utrecht in the Netherlands has come up with a unique system to tackle the problem.

It has over 10,000 cyclists riding to work, school or home every day. Which means there are 1.3 bikes for every person. Utrecht has opened the world’s largest bicycle parking garage. The parking lot is spread in an area of over 17,100 sq m and three storeys.

Furthermore, the garage can store up to 6,000 cycles and has knocked the current title-holder, Tokyo’s Kasai underground station from the helm. This is not the end. The city is planning to expand to 33,000 spaces by 2020.

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was gifted a bicycle by his Netherlands counterpart Mark Rutte during his visit to that country during the last leg of his 3-nation tour. After the high-profile meeting was over, PM Modi was gifted a cycle by Rutte.

In the photograph, a happily smiling PM Modi was seen sitting on the cycle with his right leg on the peddle, even as Mark Rutte looks at him with a big smile on his face – the bonhomie between both leaders is quite evident and points to a successful bilateral meet.