A tension-free ride to exam

Hundreds of Class X students who have appeared for the recently held SSC examinations in the city were blessed with a gift that no other students in the State had.

While reaching the examination centres that are located far away from bus stops and main roads became a difficult task for many, the availability of free scooter rides helped them walk peacefully into the examination halls.

City’s Dasarath Motors in association with city police came up with the first-of-its-kind initiative and gave about 3,000 free rides to needy candidates.

It was the idea of Dasarath Motors managing director Maganti Venkat who was moved after learning about the difficulties of students reaching centres on time.

“Students suffered during Eamcet and other examinations held recently. To address the problem at least to some extent, I have decided to help Class X students with the resources we have,” Mr. Venkat says.

A fleet of at least 60 scooters and riders rode students to exam centres from different bus stops.

Staff’s gesture

“We got associated with the city police and displayed the same on boards on every scooter we used. On the first day, parents and students hesitated to use our service. Later on, they got familiar with our riders and trusted them,” he adds.

“In Kanuru area, there are five centres in a particular locality far away from the bus stop. After observing the trend on the first day we ensured at least 15 scooters are placed at Kanuru bus stop daily and helped the maximum number of students,” he explains.

Each of the riders served at least five students half an hour before the reporting time every day. Not only the staff of the firm spared time for the initiative but also used their own scooters. “Maybe the problem of last-minute rush and traffic jams could not be solved but at least a few students didn’t have to face them. This will be a great success if more organisations offer the service in next exam season,” Mr. Venkat says.

Safety lesson

As part of the initiative, the firm also taught a road safety lesson to students by making the pillion riders also wear a helmet.

On the other hand, the mobile application, IPE Centre Locator, also helped the junior college students find their exam centre easily on the first day.

The app is designed in a way that the exam centre location is shown on a map when the centre code is entered. However, the app was downloaded by only about 10,000 users.