Naveen Rabelli, originally from Hyderabad, started his journey from Bengaluru in February and reached London, crossing a total of 11 countries and 14,000 km over the course of eight months. An engineer by profession, through his Mission Tejas, Rabelli advocated the use of zero-emission vehicles. His aim — to convince the world to cut down on carbon emissions.
“The whole journey was an achievement of the year apart from the making of the solar powered tuk tuk,” says Naveen. He was stuck in traffic when the idea of converting auto-rickshaws to draw solar power occurred to him. “Finding the resource was a challenge,” he says.
Naveen wanted to show people that it’s possible to travel long distances without fuel and without harming the environment. Through his journey, he wanted the young generation to start thinking of new ideas and technology that have the potential of saving the planet. When asked what next, he says, “I will be joining a German team that is working towards making a car driven by solar power early next year. I will provide the technical expertise to the team. The bigger aim is to get the car on the roads, but of course it will take quite a few years before we all can achieve it.”
