Auto-rickshaw
posted by Jonathan @ 9:53 AM
4 comments
Bangalore Torpedo
A newcomer's take on Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley. Disclaimer: I am a Westerner who has lived most of his life in big cities in the United States and Britain. What I write here is not meant to offend. If it does, my apologies.
4 Comments:
These things are seemingly universal in India. They're also potential death traps, although, as with many dangerous things in India, I'm surprised by the actual relative lack of death involved.
Are they still running on gasoline in Bangalore? In New Delhi, they now must run on CNG (compress natural gas) and the city's air is much, much cleaner as a result.
Bob --
Some ricks still run on gasoline here. Quite a few have converted to CNG.
The word is that many rickshaw drivers save money by mixing kerosene with gasoline. Which is one of the factors in Bangalore's air pollution problem.
Speaking of death traps, three friends of mine were in a rick accident last weekend and got banged up. Their rick collided with a truck. Fortunately, none of them were badly injured.
A few years ago a friend of mine was riding in one in New Delhi when it was broadsided by a car. Fortunately, the car wasn't going to fast, so although the auto was tipped over onto its side, there wasn't a lot of energy behind the collision (which should tell you how, um, rickety the things are).
My friend escaped almost unharmed because she was on the impact side and when the auto tipped over, she fell on top of the other passenger, who was fortunate to receive only bruises and scratches.
Ricks in B'lore do not run on CNG. Now a dayz they run on LPG - Liquified Petroleum Gas - the stuff that you use to cook. It is considered to be much economical and eco-friendly.
However, the sad part is the shoddy implementation of the law by the Govt. There are not enough petrol bunks (or gas stations if you like) in B'lore serving LPG, and hence you might have seen giant queues near outlets that do sell LPG. This has also led to illegal use of LPG cylinders meant for cooking by the rick drivers, which is not just unsafe but also causes shortage of cooking gas cylinders!
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