The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras researchers have developed the first-ever indigenous motorized wheelchair vehicle. It can be used on roads as well as on uneven terrains.

The researchers have named the vehicle 'NeoBolt'. The vehicle has a maximum speed of 25 kmph and can travel up to 25 km/ charge. It allows wheelchair users with a safe, cost effective, and convenient mode of outdoor mobility as compared to auto-rickshaws, cars, or modified scooters, they said.

The researchers added that a lithium-ion battery powers the NeoBolt.

The team collaborated tremendously with hospitals and organisations working for locomotor disability patients. They manufactured the products after taking into consideration their experiences and made constant adjustments in design, informed the team.

As per the team, India currently imports around 2.5 lakh of the total three lakh wheelchairs sold in the country annually is being imported by the country. In global markets, the products with equivalent characteristics are available and those products cost 03 to 05 times more than the one developed by the IIT Madras researchers.

While the wheelchair has been developed by The institute's Centre for Rehabilitation Research and Device Development has developed the wheelchair and a startup known as 'Neo Motion' has commercialised it.

Sujatha Srinivasan, the Department of Mechanical Engineering of IIT Madras, informed that the wheelchair will cost approx. Rs. 55,000. She added, "The motor-powered attachment, NeoBolt, converts the wheelchair into a safe, road-worthy vehicle that can navigate any kind of terrain that we may normally encounter — drive through unpaved streets or climb a steep gradient".