Surat: The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has decided to see whether the innovations of winners at the idea competition at the startup festival held on Saturday could be turned into physical products for the betterment of the lives of people.Of the 100 ideas presented by the startups from across the country, top three were awarded at the idea competition. A hybrid two-wheeler by A Arvind Kumar won the top prize. This hybrid two-wheeler runs on petrol and electricity.“This vehicle can be used for providing last mile connectivity in the city. The engine can be fitted on to a three-wheel autorickshaw and used for ferrying people home from bus stops and metro railway stations. It will prove to be an economical vehicle,” said an officer of SMC.Krunal Dholiya won the second prize for his nanotechnology-based coating idea. This microbial coat can help change hygiene in the city if used on large-scale at public toilets, garden walls, benches and other places.Dholiya told TOI, “When this microbial coat is applied to any solid surface, it will work as an antimicrobial agent. It will protect people from bacterial and viral infections.”Ali Raza Merchant and his team of six people from Mahua in Bhavnagar district won the third prize for a super robot prototype. This robot has the capacity to detect cracks in rail tracks, bridges, French wells, intake wells, etc.Merchant said, “This robot needs to be attached to a railway trolley for it to detect cracks and send a message to a web server. We can use this anywhere in the city to detect cracks and save lives of people.”Municipal commissioner M Thennarasan told TOI, “We will be calling some of these startups in the coming weeks and explore the possibilities of how best to use their innovations. We plan to set up a startup centre so that local solutions be found to the city’s problems. We plan to allot pilot projects to the startup winners.”

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