DANTEWADA (SOUTH BASTAR): Tribal woman Pushpa Lata , who hails from a remote Naunaar village of Chhattisgarh's Maoist affected South Bastar district, is in an upbeat mood as she is learning to drive an " e-rickshaw " through Dantewada town. She is among a group of tribal women who are part of self-help groups, which will become part of "Danteshwari Sewa"—a unique public transport system to be introduced in the remote Naxal affected region.Dantewada Advanced Network of Transport Empowered SHG of Women to Assess remote and interiors is a unique project designed by Dantewada district administration to introduce public transport facility in the remote interiors by involving women who are members of self-help groups (SHGs) in the respective areas. Nearly 200 SHGs have been identified to run the "E-rickshaw" transport service. The first phase of the project will be inaugurated by chief minister Raman Singh by handing over 51 e-rickshaws to SHG members at a function here on Thursday.A group of tribal women are busy learning the skill to drive an e-rickshaw. " I am happy and excited to operate an e-rickshaw. Instead of sitting at home, we will also earn some money by operating the service in the village", says Pushpa Lata. In many villages, people have to walk to few kilometres to go to the market or to reach the main road from where they can get a bus, she said adding this service could be a relief to many villagers.According to Dantewada district collector Saurabh Kumar and Zila Panchayat chief executive officer Gaurav Singh, 51 e- rickshaws would be provided in the first phase of the project and later on it will be introduced in more villages. An e-rickshaw costs about Rs 1.70 lakh of which SHG would bear about 20 per cent and the remaining 80 per cent would be funded through District Mineral Fund (DMF).Zila panchayat CEO told TOI that all the vehicles would have a first aid kit and ten charging stations would be set up at different places to enable to charge e-rickshaws, whenever required. He said the route map is being designed for each vehicle to identify the locations where e-rickshaw battery charges have to be installed. These GPS enabled e-rickshaws can be tracked regularly and women operators would be provided SMART phones. This will have an SOS button that once hit would simultaneously send messages to nearest police station control rooms that monitors movement of vehicles.Officials say that in the event of these women run e-rickshaw carries a pregnant women to the nearest hospital, they would be paid an amount as is being paid to a 102 ambulance service "Mahtari" express that provide free transportation to pregnant women. The idea is to increase the income of local tribal women, who run the transport system.The beneficiary SHGs feel that the project could become a success and unlikely to be disturbed by the Maoist rebels as it provides income generating opportunities to local tribal women besides providing transport facilities to the locals.All the e-rickshaws, being introduced under "Danteshwari Sewa" adorn a photograph of " Goddess Danteshwari " of famous Danteshwari temple, one of the 52 shakti Peeths, shrines of Shakti, in the country.

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