EARLY every morning over 50 Bicycles assemble at different vantage points on the Umodzi highway in Chipata. Reason-to ferry scores of people going to different destinations in the town and yonder.

School going children, teachers, bankers, nurses and every type and kind of civil servant including farmers moving their farm produce add to the hustle and bustle of the everyday business life of this eastern most frontier town bordering Malawi at a point called Muchinji.

Believe it or not, Chipata has become renowned countrywide for its unique mode of transportat which has refused to move with the times in technological advancement in motorised vehicles. For the most of the citizens of this town, life must remain basic and easy.

And for locomotion to and from one destination to the other, the bicycle taxi business has soared to heights unprecedented over the years that for the steadily growing number of motorised taxi vehicles, the bicycle remains a formidable foe and competes very well in proceeds collected at the end of the day.

Nothing close to the rickshaws of Nepal and India which have more organised types of bicycles or tricycles which have a compartment for passengers and goods but remain powered by human power, the traditional saddle and steel carrier that the Chipata bicycle has remained and still proves most popular.

It is not strange to see well dressed men and women dangling on a fast moving bicycle with baggage precariously balancing on their heads or a goat or pig tied tightly on a carrier noisily snorting as though making its presence known.

And this for only a few thousands of Kwacha for a fare for quite a reasonably long distance.

To make matters worse, the continuous increase in fuel prices subsequently leads to hikes in taxi fares forcing residents to take bicycles as the preferred means of transport.

With this, bicycles have proven to be the cheapest and most reliable mode of transport for residents in the district.

Statistics have placed Chipata as the province with the highest number of bicycles in

Zambia with a recent bicycle census placing the number of serviceable bikes at about 500,000 and this, once exceeding the population of 450,000 people in Chipata town.

With that also comes the sad statistic according to police records that bicycle accidents far outstrip any other accident. Some people have been known to have died after collisions with other cyclists

Chipata cyclist, Festus Mwanza, says over 50 per cent of the local community depended on bicycles for transport as it is affordable.

He stated that bicycle fares varied from K1, 000 for the shortest distance to about K10, 000 for the longest distance, which is 11 kilometers from town centre to Gondar Barracks while the minimum charge for a taxi is K5, 000 adding that there were no commuter buses in the district.

Mwanza said there were more people who used bicycle transport compared to taxis and that cyclists sometimes tended to make more monies from passengers because they ferried more than 25 people in a day while a taxi only managed to get two to three customers.

"When business booms, we carry 15 to 20 passengers and make over K100, 000 in profits because we do not need to refuel and bicycle repairs are very cheap, there are no losses in this business because even when business is not good, the little we make is profit," Mwanza says.

He says he makes good money just like people in formal employment and manages school fees for his children and other dependants.

This mode of transport is highly appreciated by people who say the district has continued to enjoy cheap means of carrying their goods even with the ever-increasing fares on both taxis and commuter buses nation wide.

Patricia Phiri, a vendor at Saturday market says she is able to carry her market produce from the point of wholesale to her point of retail at a minimal charge.

Some parents have entered into agreements with cyclists for their children to be ferried to school as buses offered by some schools charge up to K250, 000 on a monthly basis for the longest distance while the shortest is pegged at K200, 000.

Irene Banda a concerned parent said these fares were exorbitant and she had opted to engage a cyclist and only pays K30, 000 monthly.

Though cyclists are highly appreciated by many, they have been criticised by some sectors of society who say they are a major cause of road traffic accidents.

Police commanding officer, Emlyn Mushondwa, said about three accidents involving cyclists are recorded on a weekly basis.

"Most of them do not observe traffic regulations and their bicycles are not road worthy," he says.

Mr Mushondwa states that cyclists appear to compete with motorists on the road and cause accidents in this way.

Some pedestrians have also complained that bicycles cause unnecessary congestion in the central business district and make it difficult for pedestrians to cross roads.

"The bicycles make it difficult for us to cross the road as a bicycle sometimes appears just when one wants to cross because they do not follow traffic rules," says Felecia Ngulube of Kapata Township.

But cyclists from Chipata central have argued that they observe traffic rules and charged that those who do not were farmers who come to sell their produce and got excited with money they realised from sales.

On a rather funny note, cyclists came under attack earlier this year, when it was reported that they got sexual favours from their female clients.

But they have defended themselves and stated that some of the women whom they carried initiated such ideas when they failed to pay.

"When we get to the destination of some of these female clients we carry and they do not have money, they suggest to us to do whatever we want with them, suggesting sex as an option, what are we supposed to do, tell me," said Cephas Phiri, a bicycle taxi operator

Mkhuzo Mpande of Umodzi residential area says there is need to decongest the Umodzi highway where congestion of both vehicles and bicycles confuse pedestrians.

"Cyclists should be given un alternative route," he says.

The municipal council on the other hand, says the increase of road traffic accidents involving cyclists has increased as cyclists have become careless because they do not pay levy anymore.

'Initially, most of them would avoid major routes to run away from paying the levy but this time they all use main roads and they have become careless as they assume no one is watching," says council public relations officer Levi Ngoma.

Perhaps the fact that the district has remained a traditionally remote food producing area with hilly and mountainous terrain, the absence of very good feeder roads also contributes to the high number of bikes in the area than any other in the country.

Only a few years ago the government decided to put up the Luangwa Bicycle plant, which manufactured and assembled bicycles and bicycle parts to feed the ever-growing demand by the local subsistence farmers.

When the now defunct assembly plant was at its peak, it circulated thousands upon thousands of new bikes permeating the whole province and beyond.

Chipata used to manufacture and assemble a lot of bicycles until the bicycle plant was privatised.

Consequently, the industry faced a hit back and was restricted to assembling of bicycles only which drastically reduced over the years.

Eastern Province Chamber of Commence and Industry chairperson George Chabwera also agreed that the Chipata Luangwa Bicycle Plant, now Luangwa Bicycle Limited in a way contributed to the influx of bicycles.

However, he expressed concern about the high levels of unemployment a result of privatisation and the consequent spewing of retrenched but skilled staff onto the streets.

Mr Chabwera said privatization robbed the province of skilled labor with manufacturing skills that had the ability to make parts from sheet metals supplied to the industry.

One area, which also seemed to benefit the council through this influx of bicycles, was the levy that the local authority slapped on owners of bikes.

Former town clerk Bernard Siwakwi introduced the levy, which is believed, increased the revenue base and improved the council's sustenance.

It is believed the council used to raise about K4 billion from the K8, 000 which bicycle owners were required to pay as levy every year.

However, President Mwanawasa through a decree cancelled the levy two years ago.

Most cyclists did not favour the bicycle levy saying what they raised from ferrying people was not enough to cater for a bicycle licence and that the council needed to think of other innovative ways of improving their revenue base.

Kennedy Soko of Magazine compound however, commended the enabling environment created by government to allow them carry out their business, a gesture that has improved their living conditions.

Mr Soko nevertheless disclosed that like any other business people should not only rely on one particular job but should diversify for positive results and continued sustainability saying he had a field in Chipangali where he grew maize.

In 2003 the then Chamber of Commence and Industry chairperson in charge of infrastructure development Ziyaudin Daya suggested to bring the capacity utilisation of this factory to a maximum.

He said, Government needed to take advantage of the Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique Growth triangle (ZMM-GT) to recapitalise the plant once the three governments finally signed the bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU).

Mr Daya said the move could only be possible if Malawi and Mozambique gave an incentive of contributing duty free raw materials towards the industry so as to strengthen economic ties in the three member states for the common benefit of the estimated population of 12 million people who live in the three nearby regions.