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People at
Agartala (Tripura state capital) have started calling them
‘royal carriage on three wheels’ perhaps simply because of their
gigantic structure which make them a bit heavy to be called a
‘rickshaw’. They are the hundreds of IIT Guwahati designed
rickshaws which ply every day in the
 streets
of Agartala and Guwahati. These had not only made it to the
headlines for their unusual structure but more for the first of
its kind Rickshaw Bank project which spins around these
rickshaws. These days, the rickshaw bank is making news stories
for another reason- recently it was made to the prestigious
Limca Books of records.
It was way back
in 2004 that a Guwahati based Vet Pradip Sarmah, came out with
the idea of ‘Rickshaw Bank Project’. It was in November 2004
that his Centre for Rural Development (CRD), an NGO, introduced
the project in Guwahati, an effort for which his name has been
entered in the latest edition of the Limca Book of Records.
The Rickshaw
Bank, as come as the shot on the arms for rickshaw pullers in
Agartala and Guwahati. It helps the rickshaw pullers-the urban
poor- by collecting money and providing financial support to
them, so that they can own their own rickshaws. This project has
now crossed the mountains of northeast to benefits people of
costal India. The project was replicated by the CARE-India and
the Tamil Nadu government with the help of the Centre for Rural
Development to rehabilitate tsunami victims. Already 200 such
rickshaws were distributed among the victims in the southern
state.
Back in its
cradle – the northeast- the project is doing wonders. A total
of 1,154 rickshaws have so far been distributed in Assam,
including 769 in Guwahati city. Out of this, 330 beneficiaries
now own the rickshaws themselves after paying the installments.
In Agartala, the CRD has already distributed 315 such rickshaws.
The price of the rickshaw, Rs 10,500, is realised from the
rickshaw pullers in 420 daily installments of Rs 25. The project
was launched at Agartala on July 26, 2006.
The project is
presently going on an expansion drive and would be introduced in
Surat and Noida in 2007-08, in Patna and Kolkata in 2008-09 and
then in Siliguri and Bhubaneswar in 2009-10.The NGO is also
planning to introduce the project in Varanasi, Lucknow and
Allahabad.
These rickshaws
have been technically designed by the IIT Guwahati to suit the
twisting-turning and bumpy roads of Indian cities especially in
Northeast. Experts say these rickshaws are at least 40 per cent
lighter than the country-made rickshaws and have ergonomic
advantages. The other advantages with them are – they are more
comfortable with flatter seats and do not tilt while negotiating
turns and have better protection against sun shine and rain.
So next time
you take a ride on the ‘Royal carriage on three wheels’, you can
obviously feel proud since you are riding a record maker.
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