THE DAYS OF SRI LANKA’S UBIQUITOUS TRISHAWS WITH TWO STROKE ENGINES ARE GOING TO BE OVER

By Walter Jayawardhana

The day’s of Sri Lanka’s ubiquitous three wheeled trishaws powered by two stroke piston engines - that run not only all over the City of Colombo and its suburbs but in almost every other town are going to be over from next year ending the serious air pollution the tiny vehicles with canvass roofs make.

The government announced that the import of the vehicles with two-stroke engines will be banned from the beginning of next year as a measure of the poor air quality it helps to create in the Cities.
Cabinet spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa announced that the government in order to end the use of the three wheeled taxis with two stroke engines will even ban the import of spare parts for the vehicles after 2011.

Yapa said even the manufacturer of the taxis- India has decided to banish the particular kind of vehicles from India’s roads for the sake of the country’s environment.

The Minister said instead of the vehicle with two stroke engines , three wheeled taxis with four stroke engines will be allowed to be imported from next year that make less pollution.
He said, “Two stroke engines emit particles and un-burnt hydrocarbons that are polluting the environment.”

The minister said there are 280,000 three wheeled taxis on the roads of Sri Lanka and 40,000 are added every year.

The market leader of three wheeled vehicles is India’s Bajaj- for which the importer is David Peiris Motor Company. 99.9 percent of the vehicles found in Sri Lanka are of that make.

The minister said the kind with four stroke piston pins will cost only a mere 4 percent more.
At the press briefing the announcement was made, the question was asked why the government was going ahead to build coal powered electric generators at Norochcholai when there is a danger of creating acid rains. The minister said the technology is now available to burn coal with no sulfurous emissions and the fears expressed are baseless. In Tamil Nadu most of the electricity is now made with coal power which is very cheap and there are no acid rains there