Endurance test of 47 all-terrain off-road electric buggies built by engineering students as part of their out-of-classroom learning held

Narsapur/ Hyderabad, March 9, 2024: Endurance test of 47 electric buggies developed by Engineering students for a nationwide competition called eBAJA SAEIndia 24 held on Saturday at Ramachandran Puram village, near BVRIT Narsapur in the city outskirts.  The competition was held in the eBAJA Category.
 
This event aimed to give engineering students an out-of-classroom learning experience and produce industry-ready engineers.
 
All the 47 buggies selected for the endurance test were lined up at poll position.  Sri K V Vishnu Raju, Chairman of Sri Vishnu Educational Society (SVES); Aditya Vissam is the Secretary of the Sri Vishnu Educational Society; Sanjay Nibandhe, Chairman, Organising Committee, BAHA SAEINDIA 2024; Dr Vohra is the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) Distinguished Visiting Professor flagged off the same.  The balloons were also released into the air to mark the beginning of the race.
 
The buggies were inspected by the TI (technical inspection) team finally before the flag-off. The first round was a formation lap and after that, the actual competition began.
 
A tough terrain with big pits, ditches, marshy ground, rubbles, water and all possible obstructions was created to make the journey very tough for the race drivers and vehicles(buggies)
 
The vehicles which struck were lifted with the support of tractors. They were repaired by their team and buggies were back in action. The competition gave a lot of hands-on practical experience to the students.
 
Two teams out of 47 that qualified were BVRIT, Narsapur in Telangana and Sri Vishnu Institute of Technology for Girls from Bhimavaram. 
 
The competition was held for the first time in Telangana. It was also the first time it was held in South India in Hyderabad at BVRIT.  Though the competition has been organised for the past 17 years, it came to Hyderabad thanks to BVRIT. The competition was conducted by SAE India.
 
71 teams participated from various colleges from across India. Out of which 58 teams cleared technical inspection, 47 qualified in the break test; these were allowed to participate in a 2.2 km, four-hour-long endurance test on Sunday. The team that scored the maximum laps was declared the winner
 
A special awards presentation ceremony was organised. It was graced by Mr Gopalakrishnan VC, Director, Automotive and EV sector, with Govt. of Telangana. He gave away the awards
 
The winners of many competitions were given prizes.   The winning team of the 4-hour endurance competition were DY Patil College of Engineering, Akurdi; Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune and Sri Vishnu Institute of Engineering, Bhimavaram,  were first, second and third prize winners respectively.  They
 
Addressing the gathering after the awards presentation, the Chief Guest  Mr Gopalakrishnan VC, Director, Automotive and EV sector said the Govt. of Telangana said Telangana was one of the first few states in India to announce the E Mobility Policy back in 2018. The policy meant for 10 years was notified in 2020.  It evoked a lot of industry interest in the last couple of years. It aimed at attracting Rs 32000 crore investments and generating 1.25 lakh jobs by the year 2030.  75% of its targets are already achieved, he informed.
 
Last year the state announced Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV).  We aimed at Rs 50,000 crore investments in e-mobility. TMV is an infrastructure that makes Telangana a destination for manufacturing and Engineering Research and development in India.   It has several pillars, one of them is skilling.  On that front, you can increase your interaction with the government.  We will connect you to NIT Warangal, Hyundai, BITS, Micron, and Bosch which have been working on futuristic research work in Mobility, he said.
 
TMV is being set by the State government to create best-in-class infrastructure making Telangana the most competitive destination for both manufacturing and ER & D in India.
 
We will also explore the possibility of the Government of Telangana supporting future events of eBAJA SAEINDIA in Telangana, the officer said.
 
Speaking at the awards function Sri K V Vishnu Raju said core engineering streams must be back in demand. We as a responsible institution strive hard to treat all streams equally and all disciplines are important
 
Sanjay Nibandhe, Chairman, Organising Committee, BAHA SAEINDIA 2024 said Indians are well known for technology adaptation.
 
Sumantra B Barooah, Executive Editor ET Auto who was guest of honour said this is an event to celebrate engineering talent. He admired BVRIT's continuing core engineering branches despite the decreasing demand and said core engineering branches will never go out of fashion.
 
Sri Vishnu Institute of Technology, Bhimavarm was declared as the Pride of Telugu.
 
The six-day eBAJA SAEIndia 24 will be concluded with an HR Meet (job fair) to be held on Sunday where some best Automobile companies and others will pick up the best of brains for a suitable job. Last year 123 were placed in such a meet and so far, 500 placed since the year 2018.
 
eBAJA is a national-level engineering student out-of-classroom education event that tested teams comprising g in each team from IITs, NITs and other best institution
 
The competition was about the design, fabrication and building of an all-terrain, off-road electric buggy. 72 buggies were built, And after a series of evaluation tests, 47 qualified competed in the final endurance test.