more-in Tiruchi Corporation and the National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi (NIT-T) have jointly launched a hackathon for students to develop an indigenous and low-cost truck-mounted street vacuum cleaner. Christened ‘Immacula Tiruchi Challenge,’ the hackathon was launched during the Swachhta Hi Seva 2018 campaign inaugurated by Corporation Commissioner N. Ravichandran in the presence of Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT-T, and officials on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ravichandran expressed gratitude to NIT-T for helping out the Corporation in developing several proposals to be implemented under the Smart City Project. Offering the Corporation’s support to NIT-T, Mr. Ravichandran explained the various initiatives taken by the civic body especially in the clean city rankings. Source segregation of solid waste had been made possible due to the awareness raised among the city residents. The scheme was being implemented with the cooperation of nearly 2.5 lakh households in the city. “Due to segregation of solid waste, about 30 to 40 tonnes of dry waste is daily sent for recycling,” he said pointing out that all this was previously dumped at Ariyamangalam garbage yard where frequent fires posed a health hazard to residents. “The plan is to stop dumping of solid waste at the yard within two years and convert it into a park for the benefit of the public”, the Commissioner said. Initiatives to promote solar power, rainwater harvesting, roof gardens and home composting, needed to be implemented in every household in the city and make them self-contained. He also elaborated on the concept of ‘plogging’ by which people pick up litter while jogging, which was common in developed countries. Nearly a lakh volunteers would perform plogging on October 2 in the city, he said and called upon NIT-T students to extend their cooperation to make Tiruchi clean and green. Richard Sekar, an alumnus of NIT-T, announced the proposal selected for developing a truck mounted street vacuum cleaner, among several presented by various teams earlier. A cleaning drive was also organised as part of the event. Raman Sankaranarayanan, Dean, Institute Development, NIT-T, and others spoke.

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