KOLKATA, India - They have been a feature of Kolkata's streets for more than a century, but authorities in the sprawling city want an end to the "inhuman" sight of emaciated men pulling rickshaws.

They have been a feature of Kolkata's streets for more than a century, but authorities in the sprawling city want an end to the "inhuman" sight of emaciated men pulling rickshaws.[AFP]

Next week the state of West Bengal plans to introduce legislation that will phase out back-breaking rickshaw-pulling in the city of 13 million people, increasingly known as a high-tech centre and home to many swanky shopping malls, coffee shops and bars.

"This inhuman mode of transport should have stopped years ago," said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.

"We can't imagine one man sweating and straining to pull another man."

Talk of ending the cheap and popular form of transport has been going on for years, but the state government said an end was now in sight with plans to amend the 1919 Hackney-Carriage Act governing slow-moving vehicles.

"The bill will be placed before the house in the coming week," said West Bengal Transport Minister Subhas Chakravarty.

"Hand-pulled rickshaws do not match with the changing scenario of the city," he said.

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