Bajaj Tempo defends Minidor

Usha Somayaji
16 April 2001

Finally, commercial vehicles manufacturer Bajaj Tempo decided to react. Years after producing several thousand Minidors’, the six-seater three-wheeler that is popularly used for public transport, from the Bajaj Tempo stables, and long after sustained opposition and charges of air and noise pollution made against these vehicles, the company has finally thought fit to react.

Chairman and managing director Abhay Firodia, in a first ever press conference in years, said the Minidor was a new generation three wheeler, that its noise levels were lower than any other diesel engine three wheeler, and that it definitely was not polluting. And he had documents to prove it, from none other than the redoubtable Automobile Research Association of India.

In fact, he said the Minidor even met the Euro II norms (although these are yet to be notified for three wheelers), let alone meet the Euro I norms. "The Minidor is the result of the latest technology and advanced R&D efforts. It employs the latest technology in emission control -- the Mercedes combustion chamber in a water cooled indirect diesel engine," emphasised Mr. Firodia.

Reacting to the opposition to the vehicle on city roads, which Mr. Firodia termed as emanating from ''vested interests'', he said the problems were more regulatory than intrinsic to the vehicle. He describes the vehicles as a ''specially designed environment friendly and safe vehicle," with comfortable seating, independent rear suspension for torsion bars and dual circuit braking with self adjuster for high safety.

Ever since the six seaters came on the Indian roads, notably in cities like Pune where three-seater autorickshaws were already entrenched, they have caused much heartburn. For one, they offered a cheaper alternative to three-seater vehicles, by virtue of their fare-by-seat tariff rather than fare-by-distance, and a more efficient alternative to the infrequent bus service. Since the fares charged were almost on par with that of buses, added to the convenience of flagging it down anywhere on the road and getting off just as conveniently, they got ready acceptance from the bus-using public.

This very proliferation has resulted in the heartburn. For one, it was a direct threat to three-seater autorickshaw operators who have been working hard to get them banned from city roads -- including going on strike a number of times and filing court cases. To the extent that it succeeded in obtaining a High Court order to ban the entry of six seater autorickshaws within city limits -- which order is shortly due for enforcement.