Mar 1, 2017
A fixture on the roads of Punjab (India) providing connectivity to the villages and towns.
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A fixture on the roads of Punjab (India) providing connectivity to the villages and towns.
A fixture on the roads of Punjab (India) providing connectivity to the villages and towns.
Bhoond (Tempo) a regular sight on rural roads of Punjab.
Tempo's connect villages to towns and cities in Punjab, now being replaced by mini buses but they have become a permanent fixture of Punjabi village life.
Bhoond, Maruta Te Jugaad: Rural Transport Phenomenon
People of this border town have invented a vehicle “Bhoond” which could carry up to nine persons, besides the driver.
A motorcycle without the rear wheel has been fitted to a specially designed body with two wheels. The body of the vehicle is built by local mechanics and costs about Rs 70,000.
It is pertinent to mention here that before this the Punjab and Haryana High Court had imposed a ban on the plying of a “Gharukka”, a locally made vehicle run with the help of a diesel generator about three decades ago. But the vehicles could still be seen in the remote areas of the state carrying more than 20 persons at a time.
The newly invented vehicle appeared in the area three to four months back and is getting popular day by day.
Owner of one such vehicle Sharanjit Singh of Mohanpur village, near Chohla Sahib, said that he had attached the front portion of a motorcycle with the rear part with a specially designed chain. He said “Bhoond” was proving to be cost effective as the people in the mand area could travel through his vehicle by spending less. He said that whenever a family had to visit the main towns in the border belt they hire his vehicle.
Sharanjit said the people in this region were forced to invest new types of vehicles for their convenience as there was hardly any bus service available for them. He said “Bhoond” could cover a distance of about 50 km with one litre of petrol.
Whats more the "Bhoond" is looking to replace the Maruta, which is a diesel genset mounted on a bullock cart chassis.
That’s not all, in parts of rural Punjab and even on the main highways, one can find a localized version of a rural taxi made called the ''JUGGAD". This is an open 4 wheeler used by mixing and matching parts of different vehicles like, make the chassis home, use a generator or a pump for an engine, drive shaft of another etc. costs around 1 Lakh and does 40-50 kph.
On the one hand there is our organized educated world of auto folks -- people that swear by computer-based design, static and transient dynamic finite-element analysis and computer-based vibration-acoustics simulation
On the other hand, there is this amazing contrast of sorts -- that our nation's unlettered artisans can rivet and weld together from odds and ends, vehicles to mobilize the nation of one billion, vehicles that bear loads and are capable of driver controlled movement, acceleration, deceleration and braking to a halt without loss of life or limb. What a pendulum swing.