New Delhi, Jul 6 (IANS): A team of researchers at IIT Kharagpur has developed an indigenous, efficient and affordable smart controller for e-Rickshaws.

The smart controller is part of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MeitY) programme for indigenous development of electric vehicle subsystems.

More than 90 per cent of the components and its technology for electric vehicles (like motor/controller/converter/battery management system/ charger) are being imported which are not suitable as per Indian environment, road, and traffic conditions.

Initially, technology development for 2W/3W has been taken up as it contributes to more than 80 per cent of the vehicles on the roads.

The new smart controller also has a brushless DC Motor (BLDC) - an electric motor powered by a direct current voltage supply and commutated electronically instead of by brushes like in conventional DC motors.

The technology was transferred to Brushless Motor India for commercial production, as part of Digital India Week which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 4 at Gandhinagar.