28 Jun 2012 12:53:54 IST
, Express India
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IIT, IIM professors to advise govt on rickshaw scheme
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The Akhilesh Yadav government has roped in senior faculty members from IIT Delhi and Kanpur and IIM Lucknow to recommend technical specifications of the motor or battery-powered rickshaws that the government has announced to provide free of cost to rickshaw-pullers across the state.
The government has formed a technical committee to recommend technical specifications for the rickshaws and another committee to supervise the purchase of rickshaws and their distribution.
Professor Jayanta Chatterjee, head of the Department of Industrial Engineering at IIT Kanpur, heads the six-member technical committee that includes professor K R Rajagopal of IIT Delhi, professor Sushil Kumar of IIM Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Non-Conventional Energy Development Authority Secretary Heera Lal, chartered engineer Vinod Kumar Kathuria and mechanical engineer Roshan Ali Quraishi.
The other committee, which has 10 members, is headed by Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani. It includes Industrial Development Commissioner Anil Kumar Gupta as vice-chairman. Principal Secretary of Urban Development as secretary and principal secretaries of Finance, Social Welfare, Planning, Environment, Housing, Tourism and Non-Conventional Energy as members.
“The technical committee has to study the various available models of motor-operated rickshaws and recommend technical specifications for rickshaws that the state government should purchase,” said Pravir Kumar, Principal Secretary of Urban Development. The another committee will decide the model of rickshaws and the bidding process. A meeting of the technical committee is likely to be called after the Assembly session, which concludes on July 3.
Contacted over the phone, professor K R Rajagopal of IIT Delhi said he had received a letter from the UP government regarding his membership in the committee, “but there are no details about the project and the work I will have to do as committee member”. Rajagopal has done research in electric vehicles.
The State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) is the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme under which around 2.5 lakh rickshaw-pullers will be given motor-operated rickshaws free of cost. Only rickshaw-pullers registered with municipal bodies before March 31, 2012, will be entitled to the benefit. Each vehicle is expected to cost around Rs 1 lakh, and a provision of Rs 100 crore has been made in the budget of the current financial year.
The previous Mayawati government had also distributed around 100 battery-operated rickshaws that could be charged with solar energy in Lucknow. SUDA officials recently met these beneficiaries in Aishbagh and other parts of the city for feedback. “These rickshaws are not successful. Rickshaw-pullers have complained of various technical problems they face in maintenance of the vehicles,” said Shiv Shankar Singh, SUDA director.
In the new scheme, the state government plans to put a condition in the contract agreement with the rickshaw supplier to open service centres in the cities where these rickshaws will be distributed. Also, the beneficiaries will be barred from selling their rickshaws for a certain number of years.
Vriti Edustore
