ULAN BATOR, July 9 (Xinhua)-- UBike, Mongolia's first bike-sharing service, kicked off here today with 250 bicycles placed for rental in 14 locations on Monday in an effort to reduce air pollution and traffic jam.

Users can locate the nearest bicycles through a mobile app, then rent one by scanning the QR code on the bike. These two-wheelers can be left anywhere, instead of having to be returned to fixed stations.

Riders need to register their credit cards and pay a deposit of 10,000 Mongolian tugriks (about 4 U.S. dollars). Rides cost 500 tugriks (over 20 cents) per 30 minutes.

The bicycles are equipped with a GPS device to prevent theft.

"We are planning to deploy an additional 250 bicycles within this year," G. Dashnyam, CEO of bicycle maker Nickel Ganbaa, told Xinhua.

The company signed an agreement with the city earlier this year to launch the project.

The plan is to spread out over 2,000 electric bicycles in 150 locations across the city by 2020, and to increase this number to 2,500 in 250 locations by 2026.