Pune: It was teamwork at it’s best on display as Pune colleges Smt. Kashibai Navale College of Engineering and DY Patil College Of Engineering put on an impressive show as they emerged overall winners in the eBAJA and mBAJa events of the 11th edition of Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA series, which concluded at the NATRAX Facility in Pithamur on Sunday.
Standing second in the eBAJA contest was Shri Vishnu Engineering College For Women from Andhra Pradesh who impressed one and all as they proved that girls are not behind.
Meanwhile College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) and Institute of Technology, Nirma University stood on the second and third positions respectively in mBAJA.
A total of 46 out of 86 mBAJA teams and 7 out of 25 eBAJA teams competed the endurance round comprising both mBAJA and eBAJA.
This was the fourth edition of the eBAJA event which aims to provide a platform to leverage the onset of Electric Mobility in India. The event saw participation from 160 colleges who battled it out in the rugged terrains of Pithampur.
About 388 teams had registered in the 11th year of BAJA SAEINDIA series, out of which 221 (161 for Pithampur and 60 for Ropar) teams qualified for the finale. However, only 112 (87 teams for mBAJA and 25 for eBAJA) made it to the Endurance round which took place on Sunday.
The last day of the event started with the flag-off of the endurance race. The race had all the college students who have worked for months for the event come out and cheer for their respective drivers as they raced their All Terrain Vehicles (ATV) on the pre determined route which had many obstacles.
Be it slush, slopes or steep climbs, the drivers of different teams were seen trying to negotiate each and every obstacle which came their way alongwith the cheering which kept on coming from college students who positioned themselves all over the track.
On completion of the endurance race, many colleges were seen celebrating as their car made it to the finish line.
“India is blessed with immense talent but knowledge and creativity gets restricted in classrooms and therefore it is desirable that such competitions are encouraged. BAJA provides students a pragmatic exposure to real-world challenges as faced in the industry and spurs them towards discovering out-of-the-box solutions,” said Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. who was delighted to see enthusiasm of all the participants,
All the focus will now shift to the second part of 11th edition of BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 which is scheduled at IIT Ropar, Punjab from March 8 to 11.
