"We would soon start battery-operated rickshaws and would urge the Delhi high court to allow rickshaw pullers to use them in the old city. Currently, there are roads where rickshaws are not permitted entry because of the court's directions," said Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

"It was painful to see rickshaw pullers carry people, but these new rickshaws would help reduce such stress on them," added Dikshit.

While these rickshaws would charge a little more that the hand-pulled ones, authorities are willing go ahead with it  as it would help modernise Delhi, make it a green city and most importantly, reduce the burden of rickshaw pullers.

The battery-operated rickshaws, when charged, can traverse up to 70 km at a speed of 15 to 20 km per hour.  

A rickshaw battery would take around five hours to charge. "We would provide charging points above metro stations where autorickshaw pullers would easily be able to charge their rickshaw battery," said Dikshit. Solar panels would be set up above the stations to charge the rickshaws. "We have approached the metro authorities to allow us to use their space to set up the charging points," added Dikshit.

To save on time and be of constant service to rickshaw seekers, the batteries, which have run out of charge, would be replaced with a new one until their rickshaw's battery gets charged. However, "these rickshaws would have to ply within a radius of 3 km from the metro stations," informed Dikshit.