Electric autos handed over to four women drivers in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: In a move that encourages both sustainable mobility and empowerment, the Green Urban Mobility Innovation Living Lab (GUMILL) under the IISc Sustainable Transportation (IST) Lab handed over four electric autorickshaws to women from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Malleswaram on Saturday. 

Four women were identified through the Taliru Foundation and the Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU), of which the two identified through the foundation underwent a training and obtained their licences before this event. This arose from a community-driven need for better first- and last-mile connectivity and strengthening local livelihoods. 

GUMILL was established under the public-private partnership (PPP) programme of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as a joint initiative of Bosch Ltd. India and GIZ India, supported by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), undertakes urban mobility research and innovation efforts. 

Operations will begin on Monday. The stakeholders involved also shared the numbers of these drivers with the Malleswaram Swabhimana Initiative, a neighbourhood initiative for a safer and cleaner Malleswaram. 

"We have also drafted and submitted to the DULT a regulatory framework, which has case studies about the use of shared autorickshaws from across the country, so they can evaluate and legalise shared autorickshaw services in Bengaluru," said a representative of GIZ India.