Diploma Project Proposal

Mushtaq Anis
Transportation & Automobile design
PGDPD 2008
National Institute of Design

Contact: mushtaq_a@nid.edu
+91 97240 81260
Table of Contents

• Project Brief ..........................................

• Introduction ..........................................
• Need for the Project ..........................................
• Scope of the Project ..........................................
• Methodology ..........................................
• Budget ..........................................
Project Brief

To analyze and develop a cheap and efficient transport solution to address the need and bridge the gap
between the rural and urban disparities and diversities in India.
Introduction
India is changing at an alarming rate for better and for worse. The rising capital incomes, longer
distances of travel and increasing temperatures have made a car, a necessity for a middle class family or
even a young earning bachelor. Young and earning people in urban India prefer to buy cars instead of a
regular commute bike. These days a greater part of one’s family income is kept aside to pay for the fuel,
maintenance of the vehicle and paying back the loan of the vehicle.
New automobile manufacturers have entered India to capture this growing market. Established auto
manufacturers and new entrants in the Indian auto market are expanding their production capacities on a
large scale. India is currently the seventh largest motor vehicle/car manufacturer in the world and is
expected to rise to the fourth position by 2014. Indian auto manufacturers produced a record 14.82 million
motor vehicles in 2010 and with the advent of the Tata minicar, the Nano, has created a completely new
segment in the car market and made autos within the reach to a substantial segment of the approx. 50
million current 2-wheeler owners and first time car buyers.
With all these issues there are villages in India which have not developed because of poor road
connectivity. It is said that India lies in villages; even 70% of the Indian population still lives in villages. It
was estimated that about 330,000 out of its 825,000 villages and habitations were without any all-weather
road access.
There is a very stark difference in pace of rural and urban growth. Unless there isn't a balanced
development Indian economy cannot grow in the future.
Need for the project
Average journey times to regularly visited places have increased in large cities, as a result of
widespread automobile adoption. This is due to traffic congestion and the increased distances between
home and work brought about by urban sprawl into the suburbs and upcoming satellite towns. Indian
cities were never planned to accommodate such huge number of vehicles, as a result of which even the
small towns have traffic jams now. In major cities parking lots cost a bomb and in some places, not even
affordable for the higher middle class.
Villages in India are still not well connected with the cities. At least of 50 % of them don’t have access
to clean drinking water, schools and primary health facilities. Adequate transportation infrastructure can
improve these conditions.
There are various disparities at various levels in India based on geography.
India has always been dumped with cars which were designed for other countries geographic climatic
conditions. There has not been a truly Indian transportation vehicle produced with the Indians in mind and
the diversity of the Indian conditions and Indian people.
Automobile manufacturers in India are trying to bridge the gap by developing vehicles like Mahindra
BOLERO & TATA ACE which have different uses in different scenarios of the rural and urban spread.
Different needs have pushed people in villages to make their own vehicle, the “Jugaad”. The Jugaad is
manufactured in a much unorganized way but has created new employment opportunities, and is a very
dangerous, polluting makeshift alternative.
 The transportation sector has an opportunity of addressing both these urban and rural activities. Few
institutions can address both these activities. Local government agencies have either an urban or a rural
focus. Few metropolitan governments include rural jurisdictions. District and regional governments fail to
bridge urban and rural concerns.
Solutions seeking both to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of women and men and
enhance the state and use of natural resources are still rare. India needs change in the policies for a major
change to happen all over India.
There is a need for radical shift in thinking how vehicles are developed for India to address the
disparities and diversities. True design can happen only when thinking is done at the grass roots level that
can cater to the diverse nature of people, physically, culturally and geographically.

http://www.knowindia.net/auto.html

http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/indian-economy.pdf

http://www.mapsofindia.com/india-economy.html

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/GDP-Growth.aspx
Scope of the project
The focus of the project is to come up with a Cheap and efficient transport solution (a vehicle) to
address the need and bridge the gap between the rural and urban disparities in India. The need is of a
comprehensive solution from grass roots level to address the diverse needs of Indians.
Importance will also be on making the vehicle acceptable by people at the different levels.
The scope also extends to developing a support system that can make the manufacture of the
vehicle sustainable such that it can be manufactured or assembled locally instead of being delivered from
huge factories.
 Methodology
The project proposed is divided into three phases, spanning over duration of 18 weeks with the
phases overlapping each other.

Phase I (6 weeks) will be the primary research and secondary research, which will involve data collection
& literature study.
• The period of 2020-2030 is selected as time period to base the project on, as a complete change in
the way mobility is perceived needs a gradual change for introduction acceptance.
• The research will involve Brain storming, opportunity mapping, user research, scenario building,
technology projection and other design methods.
• India being a country of chaos in order, simplicity in complex systems, structure in randomness. The
effort will be to have the same sentiment echoed in the research.

Phase II (6 weeks) - will deal with development of concepts for the vehicle and the system as a whole.
• To develop opportunity mappings through a system model with all the results of the previous phases
of research. Opportunities may be analyzed further as sub-systems to understand their feasibility.
• Importance will be given to technology used, packaging of vehicle as well as form & aesthetics.
• To select an existing automobile manufacturer to adopt a formal styling language
 • Using the opportunities identified from research to develop concepts for the vehicle. Selecting the
best amongst the concepts and refining it towards final stages.

Phase III (6 weeks) - will be the final phase.

• A prototype will be developed (simulation and/or Physical prototype) and will be validated through
user feedback and testing.

may 27--
Mar 11- 14- 21- Apr 15- 18- 25- May 13- 16- 23- jun 13- 20-
28- 1 30-- July
1- 4 Jul 18 25 4-8 Nov 22 29 2-6 Sep 20 27 6- 10 17 24
jun 3 1
wk 1 wk 2 wk 3 wk 4 wk 5 wk 6 wk 7 wk 8 wk 9 wk wk wk wk wk wk wk wk wk
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Tentative schedule for the project

Research and study Conceptualizing, feedback and finalizing

Prototyping Buffer time

Budget
Requirement Budget (INR)
Studio Material 10,000.00
Model/ Prototype production 30,000.00
NID Machine Time 5,000.00
Services Outside NID 10,000.00
Diploma document for sponsor 3,000.00
Local/ Travel conveyance 15,000.00
Total 73,000.00
Contingencies(10% of all above) 7,300.00
Stipend (INR 10,000.00 for 4 months) 40,000.00
Grand Total 1,20,300.00