The Vikram Roulette
Parnavi Dinkar
The Vikram Roulette project set out as an open-ended investigation into the world of Vikram autos, those iconic green vehicles weaving through Kanpur’s urban landscape. Decades of service have cemented the Vikram’s place in local memory, but today it stands at a crossroads as sustainability, efficiency, and new technologies challenge its legacy.
The study embraced curiosity, mapping all the actors involved; drivers with deep emotional attachment, dealers facing an uncertain future, repairmen crafting improvised solutions, customers yearning for comfort, and regulators tasked with balancing heritage and progress.
Project at a Glance
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Problem & Context
Vikram autos have been a backbone of Kanpur's shared mobility for decades, but today they sit in an uncomfortable in-between. Discontinued manufacturing, rising maintenance costs, environmental concerns, and competition from e-rickshaws have left drivers, repairmen, and dealers stuck with aging vehicles and shrinking livelihoods.
The challenge isn't just technical or environmental - it's systemic. Emotional attachment, informal repair networks, policy gaps, and economic dependence make transition difficult, even when the model is clearly falling.
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Solution & Iteration
Vikram Roulette is a systems-led exploration of informal urban mobility, mapping the full lifecycle of the Vikram auto - from manufacturing and daily use to breakdown, repair, and eventual obsolescence. Through stakeholder interviews, lifecycle analysis, and comparative study with e-rickshaws, the project surfaces where the system breaks and where adaptation is possible.
Rather than proposing a single replacement vehicle, the work reframes the Vikram as an ecosystem - highlighting opportunities for skill upgradation, policy intervention, sustainable recycling, and redesigned shared mobility models that respect both heritage and future needs.
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Impact & Outcome
The project reveals why legacy systems persist even when they underperform, uncovering emotional, economic, and infrastructural lock-ins that block change.
By making invisible dependencies visible, Vikram Roulette opens up pathways for more humane transitions ones that consider drivers’ livelihoods, informal repair economies, and environmental responsibility together, instead of in isolation.
Scope of the Project
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Lifecycles traced from manufacturing (local, low-tech workshops) through active use, heavy maintenance, breakdowns, and eventual dismantling or recycling
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Environmental analysis, exposing regulatory blind spots and unaddressed health hazards.
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Stakeholder mapping, uncovering both direct contributors and peripheral actors whose fortunes are intertwined with the system’s evolution.
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Comparative lens: what can be learned from the rise of e-rickshaws and the slow decline of Vikram autos?
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Interview-based ethnographic observation, capturing voices, anxieties, and aspirations among drivers, repairmen, and customers.
Interview Findings
Interviews pointed to strong emotional connections among drivers, reluctance to adapt to new transport models, and a dependency that stifles innovation. Repairmen and dealers faced scarcity of spare parts due to the discontinuation of Vikram autos, while customers experienced discomfort and noise, driving them toward newer alternatives.
Stakeholder Analysis
A stakeholder analysis formed a cornerstone of this project, offering a nuanced understanding of the people and organizations woven into the lifecycle of Vikram autos.
Through mapping and engaging groups such as drivers, dealers, repairmen, manufacturers, and regulatory bodies, the study identified the complex interplay of interests, priorities, and challenges that shape the shared transport ecosystem. As interviews revealed, drivers and repairmen show a deep emotional attachment to the vehicle, along with anxieties about market change and resource scarcity, while dealers and regulators confronted pressures to balance tradition against the need for modernization and sustainability.
Life Cycle Analysis
Findings and Problems
Vikram’s discontinuation has led to a scarcity of parts. Dealers face reduced sales, and repairmen struggle to find parts, resorting to makeshift repairs or fabricating parts themselves
Drivers report that income has stagnated due to competition, and they are unable to attract new customers. Customers and non-customers prefer other modes of transport due to noise, inefficiencies, and limited flexibility
Frequent breakdowns, particularly with tires and engine parts, increase operational costs and reduce daily earnings. Maintenance has become a daily concern due to the age of the vehicles
Repairmen are concerned about Vikram autos becoming obsolete. There’s an emotional connection to these vehicles, which has made it difficult for stakeholders to accept the shift to newer models like e-rickshaws
Scarcity of parts due to the vehicle’s discontinuation
Stakeholders Impacted: Dealers, Repairmen
Operational inefficiencies, low customer volume, competition with e-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws.
Stakeholders Impacted: Drivers, Customers, Non-customers.
High repair costs, frequent breakdowns, unavailability of parts.
Stakeholders Impacted: Drivers, Repairmen, Painters
Transition to newer models is hindered by the lack of supply, leading to prolonged use of outdated vehicles.
Stakeholders Impacted: Drivers, Dealers
Challenges and Invitations for Intervention
Economic Flux
Spiraling costs, stagnant incomes, rising competition.
What adaptive strategies might empower drivers to diversify and thrive?
Environmental Crossroads
The Vikram’s outmoded emissions profile makes urgent the search for greener alternatives.
How could regulatory action and community awareness reshape waste management and recycling practices?
Operational Friction
Constant repairs, makeshift solutions, falling standards each triggering new questions about innovation in informal economies and technical upskilling.
Experience Gap
Customers are increasingly choosing quieter, safer, more efficient e-rickshaws.
What could a reimagined shared mobility service look like if both heritage and technological progress are honored?
Exploring Sustainable Futures
Amidst these pressing challenges, the project’s findings invite more than just concern - they evoke a sense of opportunity and transformation.
Could there be a future where local workshops evolve, harnessing new skills to produce and maintain sustainable, environmentally friendly vehicles inspired by the Vikram legacy?
Might policy makers craft innovative regulations and incentives that foster responsible recycling and streamline compliance without dismantling the essence of this transport culture?
Could deeper grassroots engagement open pathways to collaborative innovation that integrates community knowledge with technological advancement?
These questions underscore the exploratory tone of the study, encouraging stakeholders not only to diagnose problems but to envision adaptive futures in urban mobility.