An economically viable and pollution free electrically operated rickshaw, popularly known as fish cart or thattu rickshaw was introduced in the city on Monday.
Collector T.Soundiah flagged off at the Collectorate campus the first electric fish cart launched by Punjab Trading Centre, its distributors. The distributors told media persons that the electric rickshaw would be a boon to small vendors and traders. The rickshaw had rechargeable battery back-up for about seven hours and consumed only 10 to 15 units of power.
They pointed out that even though the fish cart had the capacity to carry one tonne of weight the Government gave permission to carry only 450 kg. It has several facilities including good seating space for the loadman and a maximum speed of 20 km per hour. The rickshaw is priced from Rs.1.30 lakh to Rs.2.50 lakh.