The Jakarta city is almost perpetually shrouded in smog. So, in a bid to cut pollution levels in the Indonesian capital, the Jakarta city government is replacing the old smoke-belching motorized rickshaws or bajajs - with Indonesians pronouncing them as ‘budge eye’ - with a new compressed natural gas (CNG) model.
Six of these CNG-fuelled bajajs are already plying the city road. It is in August, Indian auto firm Bajaj Auto has rolled out this new CNG model.
According to Reuters, the capital’s head of transportation, Nurachman said,
We are optimistic that it can replace the old bajaj. The old bajaj can still operate, but gradually it will break down and the replacement will be the CNG bajaj.
Photo Courtesy: Reuters
Comments
I don’t really get the opposition to the CNG retrofitted autorickshaws . The experience of Delhi where all autorickshaws were turned to CNGs has been quite remarkable . The cut in pollution as contributed by the autorickshaws is quite significant and outweighs any other monetary consideration . In Delhi a Supreme court directive led the ball rolling inspite of a very strong lobby against it . As for a heavy price being passed on to the users , the Delhi experience has been that the price per km has gone down after CNG use . The catch is that the polluting rickshaws have found their way outside of Delhi where it is not mandatory to use CNG.
I guess some CNG models are quite acceptable even for an extreme biker. A bunch of motorized rickshaws can contribute somehow to the over-all pollution in Jakarta.