Balasun river: Horses are proving to be as effective as heavy machinery in the hills of Darjeeling. Hydraulic excavators on crawler belts using air compressors to break huge boulders are working alongside ponies on the banks of the Balasun as the company executing the Darjeeling Water Supply Scheme tries to meet its December 2009 deadline. The Hyderabad-based construction company, Ramky Infrastructure Ltd, stumbled on the idea of using horses after they observed the local villagers. "This idea developed after the project had begun. We saw the villagers use horses to ferry local products to nearby markets. We realised that the animals could be utilised at our project site, where we need to constantly shift materials from one place to another and also bring stones and sand from the other side of the river,' said Debashish Das, the manager of the construction firm. About 30 horses have been pressed into services, each making 15-20 to-and-fro trips across the river every day. "We have been working for the past 15-20 days and are paid Rs 275 a day for each animal. The income is really good,' said Dinesh Rai, a horse-owner. The ponies are usually brought from either Nepal or Bijanbari. They cost above Rs 5,000 and are used to carry brooms, oranges and ginger from villages around the project site to the nearby haats in Pokhriabong. "These animals can easily carry about 100kg and are a reliable means of transport in these areas where hardly any vehicles ply,' said Rai. The owners are happy that Ramky has employed their horses as they have to spend quite a bit on the animals. "We have to feed them well