Battery-run cars may ply on Shimla roads

Senior citizens may soon be able to ride up Shimla's steep mountain roads.

The Shimla civic body has prepared a plan to allow electric battery-operated cars on roads currently used only by pedestrians, VVIPs and emergency vehicles and is soon sending it to the state government for approval.

More than half the roads in this hill station are closed for traffic which often makes it difficult for the old and sick to go about their business.

Hand-pulled rickshaws, which were in use since the British days, were stopped some 25 years ago.

"If the state government allows us to operate these small battery cars, they will ply at very slow speeds so that pedestrians are not disturbed," Shimla Mayor Sohan Lal said. "Besides, they could become a new attraction for the old and the handicapped, who are unable to walk comfortably," the mayor added.

But many are opposed to the idea mooted by the civic officials. "The introduction of electric battery-operated cars will disturb the peace and culture of Shimla's traffic-free roads," said Birender Singh Malhans, who heads the Shimla chapter of the Indian National Trust for Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

"Senior citizens don't seem to have any problems walking in Shimla's cool forested roads. Anyway, ambulances are already allowed to carry the sick. In fact, even VVIP vehicles should not be allowed at all on these traffic-restricted roads," Malhans told Business Standard.

"Even during the British rule the tradition was never broken. The British Viceroy walked or took a horse-driven carriage on Shimla's restricted roads, including the Mall and the Ridge in downtown Shimla," he said.

Another local green activist Rajeshwar Singh Negi said, "What is the guarantee that only the old and and unfit will be ferried by these special cars? Others will also take these rides as a status symbol. So we are opposed to this idea."