Project Belaku

It all started with an idea which came to us when we were working for a Project Competition called “Anveshana”. We wanted to do something which will help people with our engineering skills. Later after graduation we all four of us started working in different companies and got busy with work. One fine day when one of our friend was surfing on internet found a news stating “Karnataka only southern state with villages in dark” – An article from Times of India, Dec 11th 2015, this gave a pushup to our idea which we had thought during our engineering. Then we four Sunny Arokia Swamy Bellary, Kotresh Veerapur, Balchandra M Hegde & Kumaraswami who were working in Accenture, New India Electricals, Atkins & Accenture respectively sat together to discuss about the problem. Finally we ended taking up this work starting with village survey. We wanted to install our systems where it was really required to. Then we came to know that there are many villages near Joida taluk who have not been electrified even once.

Then finally we started our journey to that dense forest region on 5th of Feb 2016 and we had plan for survey for two days i.e., on 6th and 7th Feb. We went to those villages with the help of a local NGO person, saw people’s life, and interacted with them. These people were staying there from past 300 years and had never seen light in their homes. They use to grow paddy for themselves and if more money is required then they use to go to Goa to work as daily wage workers. So after taking down all the details required for designing a system. We came back from the forest to Bangalore. We were feeling very bad after seeing their lives. Then we spoke to our Head of the department Dr. Premila Manohar about this problem. She readily accepted to take up this project. The whole project was funded by M S Ramaiah institute of Technology, Bangalore. So we decided to design a system based on the climatic conditions there. We spoke to students of 3rd year of department of Electrical and Electronics about this problem and shared all our survey details. To our surprise we got 13 students namely Nimbu, Somu, Parashuram, Kevin, Arun, Naveen, Anoop, Yashwanth, Manoj, Manisha, Ravali, Sayathani & Madhuri who came forward to take up this project.

We use to meet every Saturdays and Sundays in our college lab. We use to teach students how to design the system and all then students came with their own design. We then had a prototype tested which was tested for durability and reliability in private lab. It got approved then we had replication to 20 systems. On 8th & 9th April we had installation in two villages Ghatkunang & Khangav. The system consisted of 100Wp solar panel, 65Ah battery, 1 tube light and 3 bulbs. We had everything designed by us. Finally we had an awareness program with people for creating awareness and maintaining the system.

We also trained local electricians if there is any problem. We had a lot of satisfaction after doing this, we saw beautiful smiles on their face. That was a great feeling which we ever had. We would like to continue this work with the support of people. We believe that “Helping hands are better than Praying lips”.

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