Ranpur: A man from a remote village in Nayagarh district who came up with an innovative alternative to conventional fuel-propelled vehicles is now tending goats for a living after failing to get government support to fund his project.
Keshab Chandra Swain (48), the man who came up with a working project of a wheel run solely by vacuum pressure, hails from Kotagada village under Sunakhala panchayat of Ranpur block in Nayagarh district, where he lives with his wife, two sons and a daughter in a small tin-roofed shed.
“Back in 2005, it struck me that there has to be a viable alternative source of energy to replace polluting, non-renewable fossil fuels for propelling vehicles. So I started working on a project to run two-wheelers and four-wheelers using vacuum pressure. I used a gas cylinder, iron pipes, cycle rims, and used tyres for the project and finally succeeded in making the wheel run only on vacuum pressure,” said Swain of his project.
Swain later displayed his project to then Governor MC Bhandare, former minister Surama Padhi and MP Prasanna Patsani when they were on a visit to Ranpur. Impressed by his work, the dignitaries felicitated him and awarded him a certificate.
However, the accolades and appreciation have proved to be of hardly any use as things began going downhill for Swain ever since. Despite being felicitated by the Governor, the innovator has been running from pillar to post to get a house under government schemes since 2009 but to no avail. However, locals are still in awe of his exceptional abilities and say he needs to be encouraged to carry forward with his project.
Swain, who has studied only till Class X, has sought government assistance to complete his project and has approached several offices in these 11 years, but nothing came his way. Appreciation from political leaders and government officials does not make him happy anymore and the frustrated man says he is at his wits’ end as such admiration is of no use to him at this stage.
Swain said he had to sell his land to bear the expenses of the project. The project would have seen the light of day with financial assistance from the government, Swain said, adding that what pains him the most is that he has been unable to get even a house allotted in his name under any of the government’s housing projects. PNN