Even as Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has floated tenders to procure 77 e-autos for operating feeder trips of the Kochi metro, the Ernakulam Jilla Autorickshaw Drivers’ Cooperative Society (EJADCS) is set to launch a fleet of 100 e-autos by September.
A purchase order will shortly be placed, for which a decision is awaited on whether to opt for e-autos that come with batteries that can be swapped for fully-charged ones as soon as they run out of charge, or those that come with batteries that must be recharged by the driver at frequent intervals, official sources said.
Two types
One of these e-autos on which swappable batteries can be installed costs around ₹2.15 lakh. They come without a battery and performed well in different parameters during test drives. Drivers / owners need not bother about the warranty or lifetime of a battery, since they are assured of a fully-charged battery within a few minutes, on payment of a fee.
Most e-autos that come with factory-fitted batteries cost approximately ₹3 lakh. This is because battery alone costs over ₹1 lakh. They have to be charged for at least four hours if they run out of charge, the sources said.
Interestingly, less than half a dozen of the fleet of 16 e-rickshaws that were introduced three years ago for operating feeder trips from prominent metro stations are now in operation. A project to deploy another 150 of them in Kochi ran into rough weather owing to the pandemic.
EJADCS representatives are expected to visit manufacturing units of firms in the coming week, to check out other e-auto models, including six-seater ones that are ideal for operation as shared autos.
Seed funding
German agency GIZ had committed to provide ₹45 lakh as seed fund for the venture to EJADCS, routed through the Kochi Corporation. The rest of the funds will be raised as loan by the society. Priority will be accorded to women and financially backward people as drivers of the 100 e-autos.
On KMRL inviting tenders to procure e-autos, EJADCS sources said it would bring about undue competition, affecting the driver community. “Rather than operate a parallel fleet, the metro agency must permit all e-autos to recharge from metro stations where the facility is already available. It had agreed to rope in our e-autos to operate feeder trips. We have already trained and kept ready 115 drivers for the purpose,” they added.
Meanwhile, sources in KMRL said its tender was to procure, manage and operate a fleet of e-autos. Six metro stations already have recharging facility. This could be extended to more locales, in tandem with the Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT).
