Amphibious craft given trial run in sea

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A man who recently modified his Maruti 800 into an amphibious car has now given it a 4-km trial run in the sea off Vizhinjam harbour here.

Accompanied by two boats, workshop mechanic PS Vinod took his home-grown craft into the sea for a few minutes on Sunday after which he was welcomed by an ecstatic crowd here.

Vinod who has been a technician's job by a German company after his specially-developed vehicle forded through the Karamana river on February 11, said he wanted to give it more power for its drive into the sea but could not due to financial constraints.

He runs a workshop at Niramankara and has developed the vehicle at a cost of Rs8.5 lakh taking loans from banks.

It travels on the road on the Maruti engine while an outboard Yamaha engine is fitted for its acquatic trips. Vinod said he wanted to go from Vizhinjam to Kanyakumari along the coastline but dropped the plan as he could not get a sponsor for the feat.

He said "the amphibious car has great potential in the tourism sector and could be used as lifeboat by commandos for military operations".

He is now waiting to fly to Dubai where he expects the German company to post him.