Technology should be used for bettering the quality of life in the rural areas and social organizations should take help of institutes like Defence Research Development Organization in this endeavour. The Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India,
Dr R Chidambaram said this while addressing at the inauguration a model low cost bridge at HESCO village Shuklapur here on Thursday.Dr Chidambaram said that a State like Uttarakhand needs hundreds of such bridges to make life easier for its people and help of local entrepreneurs should be taken to spread this low cost technology.
He congratulated the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO) and DRDO for joining hands to bring this project. The Director Research and Development (Engineers), DRDO Dr S Guru Prasad said that the bridge was constructed under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programe of DRDO. He said that the bridge is designed to meet the specific needs of the people of the Himalayan region.
DG (ACE) and Distinguished Scientist DRDO, A M Datar informed about many such projects which the DRDO has undertaken under its CSR programes. He said that after a huge success of its vegetable growing project in leh of Jammu and Kashmir, the DRDO is planning to undertake a similar project in Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh.
The founder of HESCO and environmentalist Anil Joshi said that in last year’s disaster more than 700 bridges were destroyed.
“The DRDO technique is very cheap and easy to use. In the mountainous areas the people especially women cover large distances daily and a small bridge can make their life easy,” Joshi said. He stressed the need of the premier scientific research organizations like DRDO to engage in the village oriented research so that large masses are benefitted. The bridge was inaugurated amid chanting of mantras and symphony of bag pipers and drums.