Saturday, September 02, 2006

Homegrown People Mover

In some villages near the intersection of Turag and Balu rivers, I saw these people movers. I was told that engines meant for pumping water for irrigation were modified and used for this purpose. They run on smaller roads where there are no buses and rickshaws are too slow; and there are no CNGs because of lack of CNG stations. The drivetrain and cabin are locally designed and made. Fares run Tk 5-8 for a 2-3km trip. They run on diesel. On a good trip they can carry 10-12 people.

I could see that this piece of local ingenuity was very useful for the village people. Even on Friday, I ran into dozens of them which were running full house.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

They are called nosimons mainly. In my last visit to north/west side of the country I saw loads of them. But the only problem with them is that they don't have any light/indicator at the back. Which made it really vulnurable to drive at night in the highways. Besides I heard that the braking system is not good either.

ulysses said...

Without reflectors or back lights they are definitely unfit for night travel. Are the bad brakes due to technological or economical reasons? I will have to be more careful around them when I am bicycling.