Kinetic energy to power Sri Lanka

Niranjan comes third in world:

NIRANJAN, a humble, rustic youth from far off Agalawatte brought accolades to Sri Lanka when he won the coveted Inpex award for his paper on the use of kinetic energy in oceanic waves for power generation at the annual world competition for new creations held in Pittsburg, USA.

Earlier he was successful in his experiment on the use of polythene as a raw material to produce petrol, a robot to pluck coconuts, an improved robot to facilitate tea processing and finally a low-cost motorised bicycle!

If he succeeds in his latest, the harnessing of kinetic energy in oceanic waves to generate power, he anticipates to commission medium-scale power houses right round the country. No doubt, it will be a big boost to the national economy, he claimed.

At the recent annual competition for new creations held at Pittsburg, USA, altogether 30 countries including USA, Japan, and China displayed 2,000 new creations. Sri Lanka was acknowledged to be the only country from the developing world.

Niranjan Weerakoon is the only Sri Lankan to win this prestigious award during the last decade. His motorised bicycle is in wide use in Sri Lanka at present. It is a big boon to fish-vendors, purveyors of bread, lunch, vegetable sellers etc., specially in rural areas. Its price is also affordable to the ordinary farmer or worker.

"Our systems of education is attained only to pass examinations which leaves no scope for new research. We have our young people with inborn talents an innovative ideas which have to be harnessed," Niranjan commented.

Translated by K. D. M. Kittanpahuwa