The automated spinning wheel (below) and the older version. File pictures

Ranchi, Sept. 11: If Munna Bhai capitalised on the Mahatma’s legacy, the BIT near here has improvised a tool Gandhi was often seen spinning.

The department of mechanical engineering at the Mesra-based institute has modelled a solar-powered charkha. The automated wheel can deliver six times more than the manual one.

The task to automate the charkha began when officials of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Industrialisation (MGIRI), Wardha, (Maharashtra) recently visited BIT, Mesra. The visitors had wanted the institute to extend technological help in developing automated charkhas.

MGIRI-aided NGOs in rural Maharashtra give charkhas to women to help them earn. The institute had wanted automated charkhas for the benefit of these women.

The benefits of the wheel would be felt in the state also. Members of Tiril Ashram, an NGO in Ranchi, will also be given the solar charkhas. “The NGO is funded by MGIRI and the institute has plans to automate the charkhas here also,” said Arvind Kumar, the BIT professor who headed the team of engineers that designed the solar-powered charkha.

He said charkha is the symbol of Indian culture and heritage and it should not disappear from the scene. “In the next two months, we may get an order from MGIRI to automate all the charakhas under its disposal,” Kumar said.

Kumar also told that the MGIRI has plans to automate all the other charkhas that are under its use.

The automated charkha is expected to help the women produce more in less time without exhausting too much. BIT, Mesra, has devised two charkhas and has sent them to Wardha. Each charkha would be driven by a 80w solar motor.

“This will enable the operators work for longer hours without getting tired,” Kumar said. “All that the operator has to do is to feed the necessary material into the charkha.”

The solar boon has already benefited the potters here in Mesra. The institute’s effort has turned the potter’s wheel into a solar-powered one. The potters of Mesra village were the first group to work with such wheels.

The institute also plans to automate manually driven rickshaws with solar power. The solar-powered rickshaw, according to Kumar, could carry two persons and run at the speed of 20km per hour. However, as the rickshaw will be costly and beyond the reach of ordinary rickshaw-pullers.

Hence, they are waiting for a sponsorship from the government to take up the new venture.