VARANASI: The battery powered e-boats launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here one year back have failed to serve the purpose.While launching e-boats here on May 1 last year, Modi had said that these boats would bring a revolutionary change in economic growth of boatmen and also improve the environment. But after facing difficulties in getting the batteries recharged , some of the operators have converted e-boats into diesel-fuelled motorboats The main problem is that there is no power point at the ghat for recharging the batteries. Each e-boat needs a set of six batteries weighing around 200kg. Boatmen have to carry them up the ghat stairs to the service station situated in a lane in Assi locality to get the batteries recharged. It is a cumbersome process. The mayor said that efforts are on to sort this problem."We face lots of problems in recharging the batteries as there is no power point at the ghat," said Sandeep, whose father Moorat Sahni owns two e-boats at Assi ghat. A boatman has to spend Rs 120 for carrying the batteries up the ghat steps to replace them with the charged ones. The batteries are recharged at a private service station in Assi at a charge of Rs 180.The batteries get discharged in just two rounds of the river front or sometimes midway, another boatman Babu said. In such a situation, they have no option but to sail the boat manually. It is also not feasible as well as convenient for them to repeat the tough exercise after every two rounds, they said, adding that the e-boats are not suitable for boating in strong current during the monsoon. Sandeep has fitted diesel motor in his e-boat to avoid the problem of battery recharging.He admitted that the noiseless e-boats are popular among the foreign tourists and also beneficial for the boatmen. But recharging of batteries is the only problem.Service station in-charge Ajay Upadhyay said that the batteries are recharged on 'no profit no loss' basis and they are transported to the ghat free of cost from where the boatmen collect them. He said that talks are on with authorities for a permanent solution to the problem.Mayor Ram Gopal Mohale admitted that the e-boat concept is not getting popular only due to battery re-charging problem. Now there is our government in the state and we have taken up the issue for an early solution," the mayor said. He said that basic objective of introducing e-boat was to protect the environment as well as improve the economic condition of boatmen.At the time of launching, 11 e-boats were introduced and since then there is no addition in the number. Presently, over 2000 manual boats and 200 motor-operated boats are operating in Varanasi. All the motorboat are operating illegally, as no licence was issued by the Varanasi Municipal Corporation due to the existence of tortoise sanctuary in the 7-km stretch of Ganga.

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