The seventh edition of the BAJA SAE India national competition will kick-start on February 20, next year at NATRIP auto testing track in Pithampur. The seventh edition of the event will see participation of 125 teams comprising 6,5000 students from across the country competing with their hand-made all terrain vehicles (ATVs).
Among the teams which will take part in this mega annual event, 15 teams will be from Madhya Pradesh including nine teams from Indore. Briefing about the event, BAJA 2014 convener Sanjay Nibandhe said the event which will be hosted at a National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) test track in Pithampur, will provide an opportunity for young, enthusiastic and talented engineering students to showcase their talent and also encourage them to conceive, design and fabricate four-wheel single-seater ATV.
The event over the years has been getting enthusiastic response from automobile colleges across the country and this is evident from the fact that out of a total of 327 colleges which had registered for the BAJA SAE India 2014, finally 125 teams have been selected after various rounds of tests held across the country. Unlike previous years, the standard of this year’s competition will be more challenging with the organizer from this year onward has raised the bar of the event to bring out the best out of the participants, said Shrikant Marathe, director, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) adding that over the years, the event has not only helped in producing talented automobile engineers, but also provided a solid platform to the budding and talented automobile engineers to get job opportunities during the HR summit held every year after end of the event to tap the best automobile engineers from Indore, Madhya Pradesh and other parts of the country.
The event since its inception seven years back has provided job opportunities to over 700 automobile engineers from across the country with many of them engaged in the research and development wing of the auto industries, said Mr A K Vora, one of the senior officials associated with the event adding that this year also a number of auto majors from across the country are expected to take part in the two-day HR submit to be held at Swami Vivekanand College of Engineering, Indore which has been chosen as the host college for this year’s event. About 100-150 automobile engineers are expected to get an instant job offers during the HR summit this year, Vora said.