KOLKATA: The rickety cycle rickshaws, which give you the last-mile connectivity in many parts of town, are undergoing a silent evolution using on ‘jugaad’, to improve from pedal -pushed cars to battery-operated ones.
Jugaad — the quintessential Indian phrase for low-cost desi innovation that has even discovered its means into the Oxford dictionary — is the motive force that is turning the standard rickshaws into slick motorized cars that provide a smooth ride to its users and also ease the rickshaw-pullers burden.
Operating in the streets and alleys of Kasba, Regent Park, Salt Lake and Nagerbazar areas, these retrofitted pedal rickshaws run on re-chargable lead-acid batteries and game several options that one normally finds in autorickshaws and vehicles.
These retrofitted ‘e-rickshaws’ come with an accelerator, head-light, tail-light, signs and even shock-absorbers, to provide you with a cushioned ride since these motorized ricks run at a good clip. Some even have wind-shields and mobile phone charging points at the side of a battery rate stage indicator.
These latest add-ons that began appearing around a month ago at the moment are being added to increasingly more such cars with their drivers zipping in the course of the streets honking like a automobile and flashing signs as they take a turn.
In the Kasba New Market space, virtually 3 out of four cycle rickshaws have gone through the metamorphosis. Ditto with Nagerbazar. In Salt Lake, the ratio is even upper with four out of five now e-rickshaws.
Raja Ram, who now switches on the battery, relaxes in his seat and lets the accelerator to do the shuttle instead of straining each sinew in his body to cycle with the passenger load, is happy he made the switch.
‘I now make more trips with out getting tired’
Ram mentioned, “Not most effective do I save my power, I'm able to function even in peak summer season heat, not like earlier when pedalling used to be inconceivable in the afternoon. Since the vehicle is twice as rapid, I additionally get to do double the trips that common pedalpushing cyclericks do.”
The retrofit costs around Rs 50,000 in opposition to a factorymade e-rickshaw that costs around Rs 70,000-80,000. A complete evening rate that costs Rs 30-35 delivers a daylong service. “I will be able to do as much as 80km on a unmarried rate. In the quick localized trips that we do, it is going to by no means get exhausted in an afternoon,” mentioned Sahadeb Barui, some other rickshaw-puller who has long gone in for the retrofit.
Barui used to be to start with reluctant to improve, fearing he would land in a debt trap to service the high-interest loan he had to take to make the switch to battery. But with everyone else getting into for the conversion, he knew he had to take the plunge or get left at the back of. He did so and has no regrets. “I'm incomes handsomely. Paying the high interest hurts but I will be able to set up,” he mentioned.
Transport economist Aniruddha Dasgupta felt the evolution used to be a results of the demography change sweeping via Kolkata neighbourhoods. “People’s existence are evolving. Public delivery is getting upgraded. So why now not the standard rickshaw? The batteryrun rickshaw is part of the transformation that electorate now demand. The just right thing is that it's blank power that is using the rickshaws,” he mentioned.
Jugaad — the quintessential Indian phrase for low-cost desi innovation that has even discovered its means into the Oxford dictionary — is the motive force that is turning the standard rickshaws into slick motorized cars that provide a smooth ride to its users and also ease the rickshaw-pullers burden.
Operating in the streets and alleys of Kasba, Regent Park, Salt Lake and Nagerbazar areas, these retrofitted pedal rickshaws run on re-chargable lead-acid batteries and game several options that one normally finds in autorickshaws and vehicles.
These retrofitted ‘e-rickshaws’ come with an accelerator, head-light, tail-light, signs and even shock-absorbers, to provide you with a cushioned ride since these motorized ricks run at a good clip. Some even have wind-shields and mobile phone charging points at the side of a battery rate stage indicator.
These latest add-ons that began appearing around a month ago at the moment are being added to increasingly more such cars with their drivers zipping in the course of the streets honking like a automobile and flashing signs as they take a turn.
In the Kasba New Market space, virtually 3 out of four cycle rickshaws have gone through the metamorphosis. Ditto with Nagerbazar. In Salt Lake, the ratio is even upper with four out of five now e-rickshaws.
Raja Ram, who now switches on the battery, relaxes in his seat and lets the accelerator to do the shuttle instead of straining each sinew in his body to cycle with the passenger load, is happy he made the switch.
‘I now make more trips with out getting tired’
Ram mentioned, “Not most effective do I save my power, I'm able to function even in peak summer season heat, not like earlier when pedalling used to be inconceivable in the afternoon. Since the vehicle is twice as rapid, I additionally get to do double the trips that common pedalpushing cyclericks do.”
The retrofit costs around Rs 50,000 in opposition to a factorymade e-rickshaw that costs around Rs 70,000-80,000. A complete evening rate that costs Rs 30-35 delivers a daylong service. “I will be able to do as much as 80km on a unmarried rate. In the quick localized trips that we do, it is going to by no means get exhausted in an afternoon,” mentioned Sahadeb Barui, some other rickshaw-puller who has long gone in for the retrofit.
Barui used to be to start with reluctant to improve, fearing he would land in a debt trap to service the high-interest loan he had to take to make the switch to battery. But with everyone else getting into for the conversion, he knew he had to take the plunge or get left at the back of. He did so and has no regrets. “I'm incomes handsomely. Paying the high interest hurts but I will be able to set up,” he mentioned.
Transport economist Aniruddha Dasgupta felt the evolution used to be a results of the demography change sweeping via Kolkata neighbourhoods. “People’s existence are evolving. Public delivery is getting upgraded. So why now not the standard rickshaw? The batteryrun rickshaw is part of the transformation that electorate now demand. The just right thing is that it's blank power that is using the rickshaws,” he mentioned.
‘E-rickshaw’ boom in city rides on ‘jugaad’
![‘E-rickshaw’ boom in city rides on ‘jugaad’]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
June 22, 2018
Rating:
