Rourkela: A 25-member team of B Tech students of National Institute of Technology-Rourkela is building an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) which they plan to showcase at the Baja SAE India-2017 – an intercollegiate design competition to be held in Indore in February next year.
The team – which calls itself Black Mamba – is developing the vehicle from scratch. A design blueprint of the vehicle has already secured fourth position in the preliminary round of the contest which was held in Bangalore, said team head Brishank Singh.
The all-India competition is being organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Over 2,000 engineering students from more than 400 colleges across the country took part in the preliminary round.
“We are gunning for top spot in the finals,” Brishank said. His lieutenants include Chandan Charchit Panda, Saswat Mishra, Biswa Rao, Rahul Sahi and Ramashish, who are all enthusiastic about their chances of winning the competition.
“The ATV’s an ultimate off-roader and can go anywhere, from hilly terrain to swamps and muddy inclines. It will gobble up the toughest of terrains without breaking a sweat,” said Brishank.
The team is in touch with various motor parts manufacturing companies in India to procure components for their vehicle.
Finding the right tyres to go with the vehicle was a real quandary, and the team decided to try its luck by asking for a US tyre company for help.
They were amazed when the company promptly came forward to help, supplying them four tyres free of cost.
“The cost of those tyres would be close to Rs 80,000. We contacted the US firm over the Internet as such tyres are not available in the Indian market. The company even bore the shipping cost, and it was an incredibly generous gesture on their part,” said Saswat, a team member.
The team aims to complete assembling the vehicle by December-end, after which they will put it through rigorous testing.
“Our objective is to not only make NIT-Rourkela a name to reckon with on national scene, but to make the whole state proud,” Chandan Charchit said. PNN
