The city might soon have another fleet of electric autorickshaws to improve last-mile connectivity.
The Kochi Corporation signed a joint declaration of intent with the Ernakulam Jilla Autorickshaw Drivers’ Co-operative Society (EJADCS), an umbrella group of six trade unions of autorickshaw drivers, to run about a 100 e-autos as a pilot project.
The e-autos will hit the roads of West Kochi (all 28 divisions), Elamkulam and Kadavanthra. A study by GIZ (the German Agency for International Cooperation), which is offering technical support to the corporation in implementing the project, had identified these areas as being poorly connected to and from bus stands and metro stations. Some of these areas, a few with narrow roads, including several parts of West Kochi, are not quite connected by public transport, the study had found.
The project is part of the civic administration’s Integrated Sustainable Urban Transport Systems for Smart Cities (SMART-SUT) scheme detailed in the current financial year’s budget.
An e-auto network would both help reduce carbon emissions, ensure better connectivity in some parts of the city and offer a pocket-friendly mode of transport, Mayor Soumini Jain said in a release. The EJADCS will purchase the vehicles and run the share e-autos along fixed routes that are not part of regular bus and metro routes.
In addition to the subsidy offered by State and Union governments for purchase of electric vehicles that the cooperative society can claim, the Kochi Corporation will also be able to offer financial support through the funds the local body will receive for the project from GIZ and UN Habitat. The remaining amount will be funded through a loan taken by the society. GIZ will also fund the charging infrastructure and the auto stands that the corporation will set up.
The society would rent the e-autos out to drivers, said M. B. Syamandabhadran, president, EJADCS.
Depending on the success of the pilot project, the corporation is likely to scale it up to about 1000 e-autos.
The team implementing the project had been waiting for the COVID-19 situation to ease up before launching the e-autos out of fear that the drivers might not find regular commuters with the pandemic, sources associated with it said. The upcoming local body elections could also delay the project and the funds the corporation is set to receive. They were, however, hopeful of implementing the project by February next year.