Pushing 200 kilograms of coal tied to his bicycle in gunny sacks, Raju Ansari had reached only mid-way through his 60-kilometres long journey to Ranchi. His face and vest drenched in sweat, he sat among the group of coal-pushers to catch his breath and take a few sips of water.

Jharkhand’s coal-pushers, or koilawallas, are usually the landless poor who survive by scavenging small quantities of coal from abandoned mines to sell in the towns and cities. Since this is illegal, the police often extract bribes from them on the highways.

Until last year, Ansari paid individual bribes every time he passed a police checkpoint along the road to Ranchi. But now his group of koilawallas have entered into an arrangement with three high school graduates from the area who own motorbikes and vans. “Each of us pays Rs 50 to the motorbike owners who pull us through the most difficult incline in Chutupallu Ghati by tying our bicycles to their seats,” he said. “They pay the police which no longer bothers us.”

Forty kilometres from Ranchi, in the Patratu valley, koilawallas who transport coal scavenged from the Bhurkunda mines, have made similar arrangements with motorcyclists to cross the points where the valley curves steeply twice. The koilawallas sit astride the coal bags, trying to balance their weight and that of their cargo, with the bicycle attached to the motorcycle with a rope.

But not all koilawallas are fans of this new motorized assistance. Some like Samlal Munda, who is in his late 40s, said the motorists charge steep rates. How many koilawallas can afford to shell out Rs 50, he asked.Others like Tileshwar Mahto said what may seem like greater ease is also fraught with risk. “If you lose your balance while the motorcycle is pulling, the bicycle trips, the coal bags tear and nothing can be salvaged,” he said. He claimed to have heard of seven accidents in the last two years in which koilawallas fell off their bicycles while the motorists were pulling, and got crushed by the trucks approaching from behind.

After Ansari and the other koilawallas finished their break, three young men tied the coal-laden bicycles to the seat of a van through the back. As the van's motor started and it began to pull, each koilawalla ran a few steps along their cycles before hopping on to the cycle. They sat on the coal sacks, their feet in the air, pulled by the van till they reached the edge of the hills.