BANEPA, Feb 14: Nepal is participating in Shell Eco Marathon Asia 2019 for the first time. Students of School of Engineering of Kathmandu University are participating in this worldwide competition of energy effectiveness promotion entitled 'Make the Future' organized by Royal Dutch Shell – a British-Dutch oil and gas company.
Junkiri Group of the university will showcase a prototype of eco-friendly motor vehicle in the event. It took the group more than a year to build the prototype.
Generally, Shell Eco Marathon has been conducting competition among two kinds of vehicles – prototype (three wheelers) and urban concept (four wheelers). Similarly, there will be competition among three kinds of engines – electric battery, hydrogen fuel and internal combustion engine.
Of these categories, the Junkiri team is participating in prototype vehicle and gasoline engine internal combustion engine categories.
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“We have sent our application for the event as per its requirement. It was approved at one try. After that, we started to build our prototype,” Sagar Thapa, team manager of Junkiri, told Republica.
Two students from final year and eight students from third year of the School of Engineering, Kathmandu University, are in the Junkiri Team. Smrit Dhimal, Milan Pathak, Ishan Tamrakar, Nishan Sapkota, Pratik Panta, Bishwas Neupane, Madan Chhetri and Nitesh Kumar Yadav are the students in the team.
They are working for this competition under the guidance of Department Head Danial Tuladhar and engineers Bijendra Shrestha and Pratithit Lal Shrestha.
Based on the criteria set by the company, Junkiri made this prototype vehicle using 50 cc internal combustion engines (KU 1.0) with support of mechanical and technical training center of the Engineering Department of KU. Although the university has been applying for this competition since 2017, it had not materialized due to several reasons, Department Chief Tuladhar, said.
“Big universities from Asian countries will participate in this event. So this is a big opportunity for Nepal to participate in this event,” he said, adding this is proud moment for both university as well as the country.
The event will take place in Malaysia in April, 2019.
“With this participation, KU has seen a possibility of professional development along with research sector. This is the time to forge cooperation with the private sector in the country's automobiles sector,” he added.
