To help people with physical disabilities, “affordable” motorised wheelchairs, developed under Indo-US collaboration and re-modelled to suit Indian conditions, were unveiled at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) here recently.

The wheelchairs, whose manufacturing cost is estimated at Rs 45,000, compared with Rs 1.5 lakh for imported motorised ones, have been developed under the Make in India initiative by the Department of Biotechnology and Locomo-WC of the US as part of a joint international collaborative programme between the two governments, according to an ISIC statement. It said the cost could come down from Rs 45,000 with mass production and tax exemptions.

Designed at Human Engineering Research Lab, University of Pittsburg, and re-modelled by H S Chhabra, Medical Director & Chief of Spine Service and Nekram Upadhaya at ISIC, the wheelchair has features such as a 360 degree joystick controlling system, a speed of 8-10km/hour, battery back-up of up to 15-120 km in one charge, and is light-weight and easy to fold, said ISIC.

“Indian wheelchair users have to face the dual challenge of uneven terrain in rural India along with prohibitive cost which limits the accessibility of the wheelchairs available in the market,” Chhabra said in a statement, adding that this model a “suspension system with linear links used to make all four wheels operate independently.”