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Developing a vehicle designed to be run by renewable energy was a dream cherished by Sajjad since his school days.
For Bangalore mechanic, Syed Sajjad Ahmed, innovation is a passion. His education may not have endowed him with much insight to translate his dream in a big way, but the man is unstoppable. He comes out with ever new gizmos to carry on his ambition of providing the world new ideas in mobility, sans fossils fuels.
Only two years ago, he came up with an electro-solar car nicknamed ‘cart’ which was splashed across the pages of Bangalore media. Now he has developed a three-wheeler version of the same. His journey began when he developed a battery-powered two wheeler in 2002.
The ‘cart’ is a head turner whenever it hits the roads of Bangalore. Though yet to be registered with the Regional Traffic Office (RTO), it is an elegant buggy type vehicle with wide solar panels capturing the free solar energy descending down from the skies. The traffic cops simply smile at his contraption and this in itself is a condescending licence to move around and exhibit his skills in Bangalore.
Sajjad says, the vehicle needs to be charged electrically at home and the photovoltaic cells in the solar panels forming its roof, pick up more charge from the falling sun rays as it runs. It can thus be run up to 100 kilometres everyday. It can seat four persons and can even climb flyovers and negotiate bends.
However, Sajjad says it is a vehicle for limited use and should be used in parks, exhibition groun-ds, hotel and hos-pital premises, factories and even campuses. Developing a vehicle designed to be run by renewable energy was a dream cherished by Sajjad since his school days. A pre-university drop out, his education did not equip him with enough scientific skills. He set up a computer workshop, but alongside kept working on prototypes of two, three and four wheelers to be run either with electricity or solar cells. So his battery powered two wheeler came in 2002, four wheeler hit road in 2004 and last year, he came out with a three wheeler. He fabricated all the parts at his workshop in Azad Nagar area of Bangalore.
Looking at his innovative spirit, the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) provided him with a grant of Rs. 2 lakh to develop th ‘cart’. Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) donated four solar panels worth Rs. 60,000. The Karnataka Pollution Control Board gave him a one-time grant of Rs. 25,000, while Raman Research Institute provided him with a new auto rickshaw to develop a solar prototype.
But he laments that no one from the Muslim community has come forward to encourage him, let alone providing him any assistance. ‘Muslims have no resources to fuel innovation and investigation, but could perform Haj repeatedly’, he rued.
Sajjad even went on an expedition from Bangalore to Chennai to highlight the virtues of pollution-free vehicles. It was flagged off by Governor T. N. Chaturvedi from Raj Bhavan in Bangalore.
Syed Sajjad Ahmed can be contacted at: Lunar Electro-nics, 182/1-Anantharamiah Compound, Mysore Road, Bangalore-560018, Ph. 0091-80-22296009, 26758117, Mobile: 92431-94596, email: muzakkir0@yahoo.co.in
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