New vehicle - Alaf - alternative to rickshaw
KARACHI, July 28: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan has described the locally manufactured four-wheeler ‘Alaf’ as the best alternative to rickshaw and appreciated its designing and model.
Because of its low price and being more secure than rickshaw and safe from creating pollution, this vehicle was described as useful for the city.
A presentation about this green-colour vehicle, built with Chinese technology, was given by the chief executive of the Transmission Motor Company, Fasih Hussain Agha.
On the occasion, Provincial Industries Minister Adil Siddiqi, Minister for Environment and Alternative Energy Noman Saigal, DIG for Traffic Falak Khurshid, and Secretary for Transport Nasar Hayat were also present.
The governor was informed that TMC Alaf Green Can was in fact an alternative to rickshaw manufactured with 200cc single cylinder water cool (4 stroke) engine. It can operate on CNG and petrol and having a seating capacity for four, including driver.
It is front engine and rear wheel drive with protection level higher than auto rickshaw.
It was stated that with the steel body and roll gauge, the vehicle was quite strong.
It does not create noise during start of engine and running and can cover 25km in a litre. It does not emit carbon mono oxide and, therefore, causes no pollution.
Noman Saigal and the DIG traffic appreciated the vehicle while Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan described it secure and useful for people and assured all possible cooperation of the government.
This vehicle will have its assembly plant in Karachi and has approval from the Engineering Development Board. It has been proposed to operate this vehicle initially only in Karachi at a fare of Rs6 per km.
Its dealership process is going on and its price has been proposed at Rs150,000 without any tax with delivery in 90 days.—APP
The Introduction of CNG as Alternative Fuel
for Two-stroke Vehicles
Autorickshaw Demonstration Project
in Pakistan
Speaking Notes
WAHEED KHAN
International Program Manager
Department of Environment
Government of Canada
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0H3
[EMAIL=“[email protected]”][email protected]
Asian Development Bank
Regional Workshop
Reduction of Emissions from 2-3 Wheelers
September 5-7, 2001, Hanoi, Vietnam
Check Against Delivery
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Ladies & Gentlemen
It is a great pleasure for me to share with you our findings and
experience about two-stroke vehicles, particularly autorickshaws. I would
like to commend our host, the Asian Development Bank and its partners,
including the World Bank, the US Asia Environment Partnership and the
Ministry of Transportation Vietnam Register who took the initiative to bring
us together at this regional forum.
We all share a common interest in a healthier environment, and are
working together on how best to achieve that goal. Transportation is the
backbone of any modern economy. Revolving wheel is the universal sign
of economic progress. Let’s join hands to keep the wheels of progress
moving on the right path; the healthier path. I will use the accompanying
PowerPoint presentation.
•What is the problem?
The three-wheel auto-rickshaws are abundantly available in South
Asia. They are powered by two-stroke engines and lubricating oil is directly
mixed with gasoline while filling the fuel tank. Bajaj in India and Vespa in
Pakistan are perhaps the largest producers of these particular vehicles in
South Asia although many others have joined in the recent years. The
vehicle is particularly suited to the narrow and crowded city streets in large
population centres due to its light-weight and excellent maneuverability.
Most repairs and routine maintenance are carried out by the operators
themselves thanks to its simple design.
The major disadvantage of the 2-stroke engine is its high level of
emissions, especially particulate matter resulting from un-burnt lubricant
and gasoline. Scavenging losses occur when the engine is drawing in the
air/fuel mix while also exhausting the combustion gases from the previous
combustion event. A portion of the incoming fuel-oil mixture is exhausted
with the combustion gases in raw form. These emissions in turn clog the
muffler very quickly, causing the rickshaws to experience power loss and
engine heat-up. The operators respond in two ways: 1) they increase the
amount of lubricant used, up to 12% compared with 2% recommended by
the manufacturers. To reduce their increased lubricating costs, they resort
to using sub-standard lubricating oil. This response feeds the problem
instead of solving it; 2) they remove the muffler and replace it with a locally
manufactured model which has hardly noise reduction partitions. It causes
a tremendous amount of noise pollution.
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•What are the alternatives?
Like vehicular pollution generated by cars, the long term solution lies
in improved, efficient and cleaner engines which would replace the existing
technology. Traffic management, stricter monitoring regimes and increase
in the role of public transportation are natural solutions. An effective
Inspection & Maintenance (I&M) program should be part of any solution.
The case of two-stroke vehicles, however, is somewhat different than
other vehicles. They are used mostly by poor people for whom finding
affordable transportation is an overwhelming priority. Rickshaws are used
as taxis and their clientele is primarily from lower income groups. The
numbers of vehicles are staggering, running into millions. There useful life
is quite long, running into as much as 30 years. That means vehicles sold
during the past five years could be around for another 25 years. While
phasing out these vehicles is certainly desirable, the process will take a
long time unless drastic actions are taken, either by buying out the owners
(which will require huge sums of money), or banning the vehicles (which
will cause considerable hardship to the poor owners and operators).
Therefore, a short-term or interim solution such as the use of cleaner
alternative fuels including Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied
Natural Gas (LPG) is highly desirable.
•How are we helping?
Canada is involved in demonstration projects in Bangladesh, Egypt,
India and Pakistan. Environment Canada is working with a Canadian
company, Yugo-Tech Inc. to optimize and demonstrate a technology to
convert two-stroke rickshaws and motorcycles to operate on Compressed
natural gas (CNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) depending upon
local availability of the fuel. These efforts are partly funded by Canada’s
Technology Early Action Measures fund (TEAM) and the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA). Public awareness, training and
institutional capacity development for monitoring and controlling vehicular
emissions and creating enabling environment for rewarding cleaner options
constitute integral part of these demonstration projects.
•Is the solution technically viable?
We have converted 60 rickshaws in Pakistan since November 2000
which are being monitored by the local EPA staff for technical and
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environmental performance. The owner-operators of these rickshaws were
selected from a group of volunteers who had the option to have their CNG
kits removed at no cost to them. Some did opt out because CNG refueling
stations are still not as widely available as gasoline filling stations.
However, the kits were reinstalled in rickshaws which were on the short-list.
Users have got the hang of the technology and initial fears of starting
trouble, engine heat up and power loss have been overcome. As before,
the rickshaws are by and large maintained by the owner-operators
themselves.
It is commonly assumed that CNG reduces a vehicle’s power.
Although this is a common observation in retrofitted cars also, it should not
necessarily be the case. CNG is a more powerful fuel than gasoline. Its
octane number is 130 compared with 87 for normal grade gasoline. We
were surprised to learn that a local rickshaw owner, who had a family
owned repair shop in Lahore, increased the compression ratio of his
rickshaw to match the more powerful CNG. When we checked its
compression power, it was more than five horsepower, slightly more than a
brand new gasoline operated rickshaw!
•Is it economically viable & socially desirable?
In Pakistan, an average rickshaw operating two shifts of eight hours
each consumes 10 litres of gasoline in one day costing Rs. 330. To travel
the same distance, the same rickshaw consumes two cylinders of CNG,
costing no more than Rs. 150. That is a saving of Rs. 180 per day in fuel
costs.
An average rickshaw consumes one litre of lubricating oil per day.
To save money, low quality cheaper lubricant is used which still costs the
operator Rs. 45. A CNG operated rickshaw needs one-quarter lubricating
oil. If the rickshaw uses high quality T-2 oil meant for two-stroke engines, it
costs Rs. 25 per day, saving the operator another Rs. 20 per day. In terms
of operating costs, an average rickshaw reduces its fuel plus lubricating
costs by 53% from Rs. 375 to Rs. 175.
After allowing for the cost of ownership of the rickshaw or its daily
rental of Rs. 100 per day, we found that the operator’s net daily income
increased by 100 % from Rs. 200 to Rs. 400. Please note that the
amounts we are talking about are very small in absolute terms, highlighting
the financial vulnerability of the rickshaw operators, which must be taken
into consideration while considering options to address the environmental
issue.
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We have been closely interacting with the volunteer rickshaw owners
and here is one example: These three brothers (shown in the slide) own
one rickshaw which they operate in three shifts. The family, including their
respective wives and children and their father who is blind, are dependant
on this rickshaw. Their fourth brother is unemployed and looks around for
odd jobs every day. For them, this project is the most effective poverty
alleviation project. This is the first environmental initiative in which the
participants can gain financially rather than face punitive action. They are
asking for loan for another rickshaw, operated on CNG!
Pakistan is dependent on imported fuel since domestic production is
far less than its requirements. On the other hand, natural gas is locally
produced and is abundantly available to meet the needs of the
transportation sector. As a result, the national and provincial governments
in Pakistan are fully supporting the initiative and we are enjoying
tremendous cooperation.
•Is it environment-friendly?
CNG (and LPG) are well known cleaner alternative fuels, and I do
not need to quote specific emission numbers. The emissions of total
hydrocarbons (THC) are not only reduced but the ratio of its more toxic
components such as Volatile Organic Compounds and smog precursors is
also significantly reduced. In countries where leaded gasoline is still being
used, CNG automatically eliminates lead from emissions. As I have
mentioned before, the rickshaws operating on the roads generate a lot
more emissions than a well tuned two-stroke engine should, because the
problem feeds on itself, exacerbating the adverse environmental
repercussions.
Due to controlled mixing of lubricating oil in the gas (CNG), the
emission of particulate matter, which is receiving increased attention due to
its adverse health impact, is drastically reduced. A recent study of air
quality in Pakistan found that the concentration of particulate matter in the
air in Lahore was 895 micrograms per cubic meter, 8 times higher than the
WHO standard of 120. Interestingly enough, one of the major obstacles
we had to overcome initially was the lack of tailpipe smoke. We had to
reassure the rickshaw operators that the CNG converted rickshaws were
generating power without generating visible smoke! Tailpipe smoke was
seen as an indicator that the rickshaw was healthy!!
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CNG drastically reduces the emission of harmful and toxic
substances such as carbon monoxide; another air quality study funded by
the World Bank found that urban air pollution was causing US $369 million
to Pakistan’s economy.
•What is needed now?
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to move forward to integrate our
environmental agenda with our poverty alleviation agenda, and our equity
agenda. While we have put together funding mechanisms which allows
major industries to access funds for innovation, upgradation and
modernization to clean up, the owners of autorickshaws have no access to
institutional credit, such as microfinance. They are dependent upon noninstitutional
sources of credit with extremely high interest rates.
Commercial banks would not lend them money. The reasons are not
difficult to find; they are on ADB’s webpage! I reproduce them for you:
About 90% of the 180 million poor households in the region still lack
access to institutional financial services. Most formal financial
institutions deny the poor financial services because of
• perceived high risks
• high costs involved in small transactions
• the poor’s inability to provide marketable collateral for loans
I urge you, our host the ADB in particular, to include rickshaw
conversion costs eligible for the microfinance programs in Asia, supported
by ADB and other development finance institutions.
Thank you all.
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