Rickshaws
I read with interest the letter under the above heading published in your issue of 4th February written by Prof. Zahedul Haq.
I am personally not in favour of having the rickshaws in its present form to crowd our already overcrowded streets. This ugly looking unstable mode of transport is a road hazard. I am however not opposed to having rickshaws in our roads after upgrading the vehicle.
Rickshaw is the shorter version of the Japanese word Jin rick sha meaning man powered vehicle. Rickshaw in its original form was pulled by human beings, now the form that we see is cycle rickshaw. The vehicle itself is crammed and the protruding ends of the rear wheels constitute risk for other vehicles on the road.
Its centre of gravity is too high and that makes it an unstable mode of transport. With a little bit of lateral force it turns turtle.
I would like to see rickshaws on the road but those should be improved stability and redesigned rickshaws.
Recently, I read in a newspaper report that in New Delhi they have introduced a form of rickshaw powered by solar power. What I would like to see in our roads are redesigned rickshaws with lower centre of gravity, broader and more comfortable seats with longer leg room. The battery technology has advanced tremendously in the last couple of decades and we should be able to have battery that can supply power to these rickshaws to travel at least one hundred kilometre without having to recharge. The batteries could be recharged from the electric mains during the night for operation during the day and at the same time there must also be arrangement of trickle charging the battery from the solar panel to be fitted on the roof of the rickshaw. Our BUET may be entrusted with the job of making the prototype of such a vehicle and later this can be mass-produced and put on the roads.
Rickshaw drivers could also come under the licensing arrangement and traffic could be more orderly.
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