Business Line                 27.04.2013

Students turn junk into light at solar lamp design contest

Using junk material such as coconut shells, discarded telephone instruments, and wooden boxes students of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have shown how it is possible to make solar lamps for just around Rs 300.

As many as 65 teams from 20 institutions participated in an inter-collegiate solar lamp design contest organised jointly by The Solarillion Initiative, a branch of the prestigious IEEE and the online renewable energy newsletter, Panchabuta.

The competition was held after a work shop organised by the three entities to familiarise engineering students with solar energy.

A team from the Chennai-based B. S. Abdur Rahman University won the first prize in the contest; the second and third prizes went to Aalim Muhammed Salegh College of Engineering based in Vellore and Jeppiaar Engineering College. The prizes were given away by the eminent agricultural scientist and Magsaysay award winner, Dr M. S. Swaminathan, at a function held here today at the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.

The solar lamps displayed at the event showed how the lamps could be made from even junk material as long as you have the three major elements of a solar lamp – solar panel, batteries and LED lights.

Speaking at the function, Dr Swaminathan called for an Integrated Energy Security Policy with emphasis on renewable energy and with particular focus on solar energy. He said it was important that the students community realised the importance of solar energy.

Vineeth Vijayaraghavan, Founder-Editor, Panchabuta, said that the organisers would take the workshop-competition events to other parts of Tamil Nadu in the coming months, in deference to the demand by various colleges and universities.

Ramesh Rajesh, Co-Founder of The Solarillion Initiative, said that the not-for-profit initiative focused on solar education, research, capacity building and social projects that aimed to reach out to millions of college students in five years.

The Hindu              27.04.2013

Congestion pricing for Chennaiites soon?

Civic body approves study for solutions to ease traffic chaos on city roads.

The Chennai Corporation is all out to tackle one of the city’s chronic irritants — traffic jams.

On Friday, the Corporation, at its council meeting, passed a resolution for a study to analyse various means through which clogging on the city’s roads can be reduced.

An array of traffic control solutions such as congestion pricing, a bus rapid transit system, public bicycle-sharing and inter-modal integration may soon be implemented, based on models in China and Singapore.

A team of seven Corporation engineers will visit Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Singapore to study traffic solutions adopted in these cities.

The engineers are: R. Jayaraman, D. Rajasekhar, S. Rajendran, S. Sudhakar, A.S. Murugan, R. Manoharan and R. Srinivasan.

The study, which will cost Rs. 20 lakh, is expected to produce practical solutions, which will then be implemented to ensure traffic management in the city is on par with other international metropolises.

The engineers will be assisted by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy as well as a few other non-governmental organisations.

Many of the 354 km of bus routes and 5,563 km of interior roads are likely to be covered under the new proposal, which will primarily involve congestion pricing.

Congestion pricing involves a surcharge for users of transport when the system is in excessive demand, such as during peak hours.

It could involve charges for those using private vehicles on crowded roads and is aimed at reducing the number of vehicles on such roads in order to ease congestion.

“Congestion pricing models have been successful in cities such as Singapore and London. While Singapore has electronic road pricing, Hong Kong has a very good inter-modal transport integration system. Every city has various options, and all of them are trying them in various degrees,” said Raj Cherubal of CitiConnect.

“In the 1960s, London started congestion pricing. Though it was opposed at first, one mayor finally managed to implement it,” said a senior traffic expert.

“In Chennai, such efforts require a lot of determination and political will by the government. Engineers were not able to implement the loop-buried vehicle activated signal on Arcot Road two decades ago, as the devices were damaged by road cuts,” he said.

He added, “Bus bays are a simple concept, but still, they have not been implemented properly. It is very difficult to implement anything here, but we have to try and experiment with various solutions for better traffic management. A lot of research has to be done before implementing any solution, including congestion pricing.”