by Johnson
From time immemorial all kinds of vehicles have been traveling on Indian roads... Right from the roads in Rameshwaram lying in the southern-most tip of the Indian peninsula to the highest motor-able road in the world - Khardung-La lying in the northernmost Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. All kinds of vehicles have been running on these the roads. But a certain lawyer in the High Court pleaded that this particular vehicle is dangerous for the well-being of all Indians, and the Judge conveniently ordered Electric Rickshaws to be banned. Welcome to incredible India!
Electric Rickshaws in their hay days on Delhi streets. They could save US $ 4 billion every year!
Thus literally the status of these electric rickshaws are “hung” as there will not be any decision very early especially since such a situation favors certain CNG producing company and a CNG/Petrol Rickshaw manufacturing company. I am afraid the poor Electric Rickshaw could be put to death in the very same year (2014) Clean Energy and Electric Vehicles were supposed to get a great “up-liftment”.
What is surprising is that these clean energy vehicles were introduced by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2010 but now the High Court has over-ruled it and ordered to take these vehicles off the Delhi Roads.
What is surprising is that these clean energy vehicles were introduced by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2010 but now the High Court has over-ruled it and ordered to take these vehicles off the Delhi Roads.
I drive regularly and I have traveled along the Indian roads and for the life of me I cannot understand how an electric rickshaw can be labeled “dangerous Vehicle” and “banned till further notice”. All this while I thought Petrol and CNG vehicles were dangerous. Really dangerous! As the fuel is highly inflammable and can explode and set themselves and the vehicles nearby on fire. Now these I would label as dangerous!
What criteria were used to decide the e-rickshaw is dangerous? To ban that particular vehicle from running on Roads in Delhi? Have we EVER banned any vehicle in the history of the Country? So for the first time in the history of the country a certain type of vehicle gets banned from using the roads. All these questions raises doubts in a person’s mind regarding the integrity of the ban?
How is E-Rickshaws (ER) more dangerous than say a cycle or a handcart or a bullock cart? There is no way an ER is going to ram into a car and dent the car beyond repair. Then what is the danger? The danger is, if at all there is one, it would be of some truck or car crashing into the electric rickshaw. Then who is at fault? Is it the rickshaw or the is it the truck being driven irresponsibly? It is obviously the truck's fault. There will always be such accidents. There are other far slower or faster moving vehicles on the roads than ER. But if the rickshaw is modified to run quicker (over 25kmph) then that too is considered unlawful? Thus slow ER's are banned and faster rickshaw's are unlawful. Well so now the court has decided we all better stick to petrol and CNG!
What criteria were used to decide the e-rickshaw is dangerous? To ban that particular vehicle from running on Roads in Delhi? Have we EVER banned any vehicle in the history of the Country? So for the first time in the history of the country a certain type of vehicle gets banned from using the roads. All these questions raises doubts in a person’s mind regarding the integrity of the ban?
How is E-Rickshaws (ER) more dangerous than say a cycle or a handcart or a bullock cart? There is no way an ER is going to ram into a car and dent the car beyond repair. Then what is the danger? The danger is, if at all there is one, it would be of some truck or car crashing into the electric rickshaw. Then who is at fault? Is it the rickshaw or the is it the truck being driven irresponsibly? It is obviously the truck's fault. There will always be such accidents. There are other far slower or faster moving vehicles on the roads than ER. But if the rickshaw is modified to run quicker (over 25kmph) then that too is considered unlawful? Thus slow ER's are banned and faster rickshaw's are unlawful. Well so now the court has decided we all better stick to petrol and CNG!
You can see in the first image an auto rickshaw, bullock cart and cycle rickshaws being operated but the better vehicle in make, in look & in ride quality sadly is being banned.
Many people do not realize this but Electric Rickshaws (ER) are the most useful EV technology. Call it Jugad technology or whatever... the design of the ER is very straight forward and simple. It gets you from point A to point B in a simple method. Right now the design of the ER is very basic and it an be improved a lot. One company has even put solar roof so that there is not only shade but the battery gets charged on the go and even when the ER is waiting for passengers. The ER can move more people (6 to 8 passengers) than a car and at the same time it is 200 % less expensive than a car. If the e-rickshaws are manufactured on a large scale then the price could come down by half. The biggest advantage of ER's is that the engineering is very frugal. The fact that Rickshaw and Taxis run almost 24 hrs a day is another advantage that they need huge fuel quantities and changing to electric means huge savings.
What a shame! Instead of promoting the use and development of such new technology we are using ancient laws to ban the technology!
First of all the automobile laws are ancient and in this case the decision to ban them have been taken just because of a single accident that happened on Delhi street. Due to our self induced blindness we do not let research and development of new technology happen locally. This is a very good case where the boundaries of the unorganized sector has merged with the corporate sector seamlessly. We saw that the unorganized sector is unorganized so we decide to ban it instead of organizing it. We, or rather our government didn't bother to organize it in four years from 2010. The onus should have been on the government to draft new laws and till then the vehicles could have operated. The drivers are always ready to comply with the Govt rules. But the Govt has not formed ANY such rules. Once the rules are set there will be more development in this sector. But all this will happen once some other country has taken the lead. Then we keep complaining of brain drain. How can we use ancient radio laws of 1950 to govern the latest satellite TV channels?
If you look in to the case you will realise the mistake is more of the sweet shop owner than the electric rickshaw. In this incident a 3yr old boy got knocked into a boiling sugar syrup being kept on the footpath which is on the main road. This was an accident waiting to happen. If the child was knocked in by a bus or a car would they have banned all buses and cars? Is this not the height of stupidity? Or was it an easy point used to kill the electric rickshaw?
First of all the automobile laws are ancient and in this case the decision to ban them have been taken just because of a single accident that happened on Delhi street. Due to our self induced blindness we do not let research and development of new technology happen locally. This is a very good case where the boundaries of the unorganized sector has merged with the corporate sector seamlessly. We saw that the unorganized sector is unorganized so we decide to ban it instead of organizing it. We, or rather our government didn't bother to organize it in four years from 2010. The onus should have been on the government to draft new laws and till then the vehicles could have operated. The drivers are always ready to comply with the Govt rules. But the Govt has not formed ANY such rules. Once the rules are set there will be more development in this sector. But all this will happen once some other country has taken the lead. Then we keep complaining of brain drain. How can we use ancient radio laws of 1950 to govern the latest satellite TV channels?
If you look in to the case you will realise the mistake is more of the sweet shop owner than the electric rickshaw. In this incident a 3yr old boy got knocked into a boiling sugar syrup being kept on the footpath which is on the main road. This was an accident waiting to happen. If the child was knocked in by a bus or a car would they have banned all buses and cars? Is this not the height of stupidity? Or was it an easy point used to kill the electric rickshaw?
8 Seater Electric Rickshaw with Solar Panel roof with Lead Acid Battery. Car companies should learn a thing or two from such vehicles.
The below income and expense is take from this blog. After random cross checking I can assure the figures are true.
“Working from 8am to 5pm daily, Ravi revealed he earns around 900 Rs per shift, of which 300 Rs is spent on the hire of the auto rickshaw and 200 Rs on ‘CNG’, taking home 400 Rs daily”. Meaning in 8 hour shift he spends 55% on daily expense which is a major expense this he could actually share between the passenger and himself which could make transportation cheaper by 25% if not by 55%.
Another angle is the cost he pays for CNG is Rs 200 in 1 shift. Most of the rickshaws run in at least 2 shift if not round the clock. Thus cost for fuel per auto rickshaw per day is Rs 400 and Rs 146,000 per year (Rs 400 x 365 days – rickshaw drivers do not like to take holidays).
“Working from 8am to 5pm daily, Ravi revealed he earns around 900 Rs per shift, of which 300 Rs is spent on the hire of the auto rickshaw and 200 Rs on ‘CNG’, taking home 400 Rs daily”. Meaning in 8 hour shift he spends 55% on daily expense which is a major expense this he could actually share between the passenger and himself which could make transportation cheaper by 25% if not by 55%.
Another angle is the cost he pays for CNG is Rs 200 in 1 shift. Most of the rickshaws run in at least 2 shift if not round the clock. Thus cost for fuel per auto rickshaw per day is Rs 400 and Rs 146,000 per year (Rs 400 x 365 days – rickshaw drivers do not like to take holidays).
This was in June 2014 - Sorry Sir... the ban is still in effect in August 2014.
In spite of the situation being unsure on the last count in Delhi (Dec 2013) there were around 100,000 Electric Rickshaws and India has at least 20 large cities. Thus India has a potential of a minimum of 2,000,000 auto rickshaws. Thus if we multiply Rs 146,000 x 2,000,000 autos we get a saving if Rs 292,000,000,000 which is equal to a savings of US$ 4,866,666,666! (India can save US $4.86 Billion EVER YEAR). It is very important to put this into perspective as the remittance to India which is the highest in the world is around US$ 70 billion. If all taxis and auto rickshaws in India are switched to electric then the saving would easily be around US$30 billion. This is HUGE and far more capable to change the economy of the country than anything the Finance Minister of the country can ever dream of. Implementation of Electric Vehicles is going to be paramount in bringing down inflation.
How can we ban a technology which provides the country huge relief from imported fuel dependence just because a vendor kept the boiling pan in the footpath of a busy street!!??!! Not only do E-Rickshaws benefit the country but it also provides comfort for the passenger as there is lesser vibration and noise and the vehicle owner also is able to save more money rather than purchase expensive fuel and also save on maintenance charges. On top of this electric rickshaw is good for the environment.
How can we ban a technology which provides the country huge relief from imported fuel dependence just because a vendor kept the boiling pan in the footpath of a busy street!!??!! Not only do E-Rickshaws benefit the country but it also provides comfort for the passenger as there is lesser vibration and noise and the vehicle owner also is able to save more money rather than purchase expensive fuel and also save on maintenance charges. On top of this electric rickshaw is good for the environment.
5 Simple rules... but strangely not yet implemented in 4 years since 2010!
So let me end by saying that a vegetable knife can cut vegetable and at the same time cut a finger. But lets not let it block our vision and our mind to be so narrow as to ban the “knife”. The ban on the Electric Rickshaw has to be revoked at the earliest and the street vendor who left his frying pan in the footpath has to be heavily penalized cause if the pan was not there the child would merely have fallen on the ground and at worst wounded itself. So in this case I really don't see how the judge finds the vehicle owner guilty other than he abandoned the vehicle and escaped in fright. Another thing that needs to be done is that these vehicles should be given number plates so that they can be fined in case of flouting traffic rules and the electric rickshaw drivers should have driving license. The successful integration of the Electric Rickshaws in India will start a new chapter in the economy of India and this should be carried out on a war footing.
What is most funny is that Bajaj Auto-rickshaw company, the sole producer of autos in Indian "Raj" never expected such a design of electric rickshaws to come up and even further the successful acceptances of the drivers and passengers of such a vehicle design. Makes me wonder if they even have a R&D department?
For those who are big supporters of Li-Ion battery and say Li-Ion is the latest in battery technology and that alone can save EV's, I would like to show them the story of Electric Rickshaws which can transport 8 passengers while Tesla Motors or Mahindra Reva are having a tough time transporting just 4 passengers.
Some of the Electric rickshaw makers in India:
http://www.devante.in/
http://www.saeraelectricauto.in/solar-rechargeable-electric-rickshaw-1906979.html
What is most funny is that Bajaj Auto-rickshaw company, the sole producer of autos in Indian "Raj" never expected such a design of electric rickshaws to come up and even further the successful acceptances of the drivers and passengers of such a vehicle design. Makes me wonder if they even have a R&D department?
For those who are big supporters of Li-Ion battery and say Li-Ion is the latest in battery technology and that alone can save EV's, I would like to show them the story of Electric Rickshaws which can transport 8 passengers while Tesla Motors or Mahindra Reva are having a tough time transporting just 4 passengers.
Some of the Electric rickshaw makers in India:
http://www.devante.in/
http://www.saeraelectricauto.in/solar-rechargeable-electric-rickshaw-1906979.html