By Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, Jul 13 (IANS): Rising fuel prices have upset the budget of households across the country and have even forced motorists to cut down on their commute or find other ways to deal with the situation.

However, a man in Telangana came out with an innovative idea to insulate himself from the steep hike in price of petrol. Kurapati Vidyasagar replaced the petrol engine of his 15-year-old motorcycle with batteries, converter and a motor, turning it into a cost-effective electric bike.

A television mechanic in Jangaon town, Vidyasagar told IANS over phone that he first hit upon the idea during the Covid-19 induced lockdown last year. With the price of petrol crossing Rs.100 mark recently, he decided to implement his plan.

The 42-year-old, who runs a shop in the town, purchased four 30-ah 12-volt batteries by investing Rs 10,000 and bought electric bike conversion kit comprising 48V motor, converter etc by spending another Rs 7,500. He removed the petrol engine of his Bajaj Discover bike and replaced it with batteries and motor with the help of a two-wheeler mechanic.

"In all, I spent about Rs 20,000 but this is helping me save Rs.3,000 every month as I no longer need to buy petrol," Vidyasagar said.

He earlier used to buy 1-1.5 liter of petrol every day and rising price had added to the burden. Today, he is covering the same distance of 50-60 km every day with minimum expenses.

Every night, he charges his vehicle for five hours and this is enough for covering 50-60 km. "The charging required 1-2 unit of power which works out to about Rs.10 every day," he said.

Vidyasagar, who has studied up to 12th Class, is now working to ensure charging of the bike while on the move with a dynamo. He says this will help in covering longer distance.

He is also ready to help others covert their petrol vehicles into electric one and is looking forward for support from the government agencies.

He believes that by using the simple technology one can convert existing vehicle into electric one instead of buying a new e-vehicle. He pointed out that he used his old vehicle which was kept idle. He was using Activa for his daily commute before he converted his old bike into electric bike.

According to Vidyasagar, speed is the only limitation with the converted e-bike. "It can help prevent pollution and safe, but it can run up to maximum speed of 25-30 kmph. If you increase the weight, the speed comes down further," he said.