India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph

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*Venky* <venky.na >2008/8/4courtsey: bxghosh posted to IIT-Global-DiscussionGroup

Indians to be proud of, Environmentalists get a great Tool invented.India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph2 Aug, 2008, 2045 hrs IST,Moinak Mitra, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: India could soon take pride for reinventing the wheel and leadingthe global green movement! An innovation by a senior administrator atIIT-Kharagpur is helping him ride the humble bicycle at 40 km an hour and

pedalling past motor vehicles on busy roads without much effort. And youcould be next — cycle manufacturers are planning to launch these hot wheelscommercially, very soon.Manoj Mondal is the inventor of the crank pedal—he successfully tweaked the

pedal of a bicycle to an extent that it generates almost double the torque(force multiplied by the distance from the centre) than in normalcircumstances . In other words, the speed of the bicycle increases from,

say, 20 km/hr to 40 km/hr.His feat has already made him the toast of incubators , the green lobby anda host of companies which are coming forward to adapt Mondal's technologycommercially. While the invention ushers in revolutionary intra-city

commute, it cocks a snook at the fuel brigade as the inventor apprehendsauto majors may just gang up to disembark his plans. " I want to first launch the product in the ladies' and sports bicyclecategories since speed is critical here, " says Mondal, who has initiated

talks with cycle brands like Atlas, TI Cycles and Hero. There's more. " Tweaking the pedal to generate more torque can create 700 watts ofelectricity per unit, " says Mondal.Now that's enough to light up 10 neons. Next, he's working on a prototype

where pedalling on a stationary cycle has the potential to dig a bore deepenough to make a drain, and construction major Escorts seems to have showninterest in the new technology, says Mondal. Besides, Mondal's invention is

slated to benefit rickshaw-pullers as the Centre for Rural Development hasshown keenness to convert 10,000 rickshaws into the crank pedal mode thisyear.Though power companies haven't lined up yet, bicycle makers seem to have

grasped the next wave. " I'm awaiting the final prototype (from Mondal) andthen intend to take it to the dealers en route the market, " says R K Kapur,chief general manager of technology at Atlas Cycles. Vasant Devaji of TI

Cycles claims that a meeting with Mondal is scheduled next month to take theproject forward.For the time being , the marketing muscle is being provided by the LockheedMartin India Innovation Growth Programme that was launched in March last

year jointly by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(Ficci) and the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas. This year,Mondal's crank pedal won the silver at the Lockheed Martin India Innovation

Growth Programme. " We are helping Mondal to tie up with the Hero Group and are also in touchwith the Ministry of Rural Development to roll out his invention, " saysNirankar Saxena, additional director at Ficci. " As stewardship of the

environment takes on an ever-increasing importance for the global community,we have seen great promise for such inventions to increase energyefficiency, save precious resources, and reduce pollution, " says Ray O.

Johnson , CTO of Lockheed Martin.Mondal is acutely aware of the acceptability of his manual wonder in themetros, and is also perfecting a rickshaw that looks like a car, " so that itis not out of place in a metro " . He calls it a " funky value proposition " .

Meanwhile, Dr Pradip K Sarmah, executive director of the Centre for RuralDevelopment is banking on the crank pedal " to reduce the drudgery of the 10million rickshaw-puller of India " . The centre runs a Rickshaw Bank to cater

to the urban poor, and already has an improvised rickshaw by IIT-Guwahati ,which costs Rs 12,000 a pop with insurance, licence, uniform and the worksthrown in. " Mondal's invention will add speed to the existing force and cost

Rs 100 extra, " contends Sarmah.As for Mondal, he's onto his 10th prototype and exudes rock-solid confidenceabout doubling the torque. Though 14 patents exist on claims of increasingthe torque, Mondal's pedal cranks up a whole new business proposition for

marketers. Up to speed, the soft-spoken professor from IIT now lets thetorque do the talking.*Error! Filename not specified.*