We Indians are not the ones to get bogged down by challenges so easily. We love to do things which seem unachievable and out of reach. Two such Indians are - Sushil Reddy and Rajendra Bhaskar, where former is a student later is an alumnus of Energy Science Department of IIT Bombay. The two will be riding across 5 states and 7000+ kms in India starting first week of May 2016 for approximately 70 days. The solar awareness ride has been named as - The Sunpedal Ride.
Powered by solar energy, the bike has been manufactured by Hulikkal and is fitted with a motor to assist in pedaling. The motor derives its power from the energy generated by 240 watts solar panels. Further, the cycle can also be used normally as a normal cycle to commute to and fro.
The route for the 7,000 kms journey is IIT Bombay, Valsad, Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Diu, Somnath, Porbandar, Dwarka, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Mt. Abu, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Bhatinda, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Roorkee, Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Deogarh, Udaipur, Gandhinagar, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi, and then back to pavilion, IIT Bombay.During the ride, funds will be raised to get solar power to a rural school in Jatwara of the NGO, Hockey Village India. There are frequent power cuts in the rural school where kids are empowered using education and sports. Solar power in this village will help these kids to study and progress better in their lives.
The wonder bike was unveiled by the title sponsor on May 6 at the IIT Bombay campus. The event also saw attendance of representatives from title sponsor, Inter Solar, silver sponsor, BSNL, Zoom Car, Team Shunya, and IIT Bombay students.
Reddy has previously worked with Professor Chetan Solanki in his solar energy startup kWattsolutions. In the final year of his college, he developed the bicycle and travelled from Mumbai to Goa covering a distance of 500 kms in December last year. Krunal Tailor and Himanshu Singh were the other teammates involved in the project.
The solar powered cycle clocks an average speed of 20-25 kms per hour and Sushil plans to cover a distance of almost 100 kms everyday. He will be riding the cycle from 5-11 am in the morning and the ride will include a demonstration and presentation of the bike at all the stoppages during the 70 day ride.
Zoom car, an automobile startup, has sponsored a car, with GPS and special crew, which will follow Reddy throughout his 7,000 kms journey.
According to a statement given by Manan Modi, marketing manager, Zoom car (west) to a national daily, “Sushil is doing the reverse of what we do and this makes it interesting to capture his journey. He is encouraging people to use solar energy and I would like to replace all my diesel cars with electric and solar cars.”
While the whole journey is aimed at spreading awareness mainly among students and politicians, the funds raised from the event will go to Hockey Village India, an NGO which integrates sports and education to teach kids in rural areas of Rajasthan. Sushil is also planning on starting a crowd funding campaign to help Rajasthan's Jatwara village.
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