JOIN USFour engineering students from the City have developed an eco-friendly vehicle to simplify the process of garbage lifting with lesser manpower.
R Saravana Kumar, P Girish, Sarin P S and Sandeep N are final-year students at the Gopalan College of Engineering and Management (GCEM).
The vehicle called the ‘Manpower scavenging machine’, consists of a cycle-like mechanism with a shovel attached to the front. Explaining further, Kumar said: “A person has to sit and pedal the vehicle so that it moves forward to the garbage dumping yard. The pedal, when rotated in the opposite direction, enables the shovel to remove garbage and transfer it into the conveyor belt fitted inside the machine. The conveyor belt in turn transfers it to the collecting/storage bin mounted next to the it.”
The one-seater vehicle does not need fuel. It took them three months to create it under the guidance of Assistant Professor of GCEM, D Raja, as part of their final year project.
The team spent Rs 15,000 to construct the unit. “To handle large quantities of garbage and to redesign, it may cost 35,000 per unit. Currently, the vehicle can handle 250-300 kg of dry waste,” said Kumar.
Girish said the vehicle is designed to avoid manual contact with garbage. “Our team is part of the Swachch Bharat group formed in college and we faced problems with lifting garbage with our hands as it is unhygienic. The Pourakarmikas who lift garbage on roads especially decomposable bio materials, polymeric materials and animal waste face health issues and catch infectious diseases. Considering this, we had an idea to create this equipment,” said Girish.
The students maintained that they have plans to further improve the vehicle in terms of quality and size. Trials have already been conducted successfully using the vehicle, they said.
DH News Service