Bhubaneswar, Feb 4: In the Elite (Men’s) category, Rajesh from Tamil Nadu won a cash prize of Rs 1.25 Lakhs, while the Elite Women’s championship Rutuja won Rs 1 Lakh in Saksham Cyclothon Bhubaneswar which was flagged off from Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Statdium on Sunday.
Over 10,000 cyclists participated in the Green ride. Cash prize totaling to Rs 6 Lakhs were awarded among various categories. In addition, 50 cycles were distributed to participants through a lucky draw.
The event was organized under the dynamic leadership of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan.
Participants from all walks of life including officials from various ministries, Oil Industry, besides, sports personalities i.e. first Odia Arjun awardee Minati Mohapatra- cyclist, Hockey player VR Raghunath, Athelete Amiya Kumar Mallik, Cricketer Paresh Patel from Odisha, cricketer Munaf Patel, tennis player Poulomi Ghatak and others, Odia cinestar Mihir Dash, Anu Choudhury, Sabyasachi Mishra and Archita Sahu, school and college children cycling professionals also took in the event.
On the occasion, Shri Pradhan administered the Saksham Pledge and lead the 11 km Green and Fun Ride amidst great excitement and fan-fare to create awareness for cycle.
The start of this Cyclothon lay in Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeal to people in his monthly radio show Mann Ki Baat about avoiding the use of petrol and diesel for one day in a week to conserve fuels and contribute towards Nation building.
The promotion of cycling through this event is aimed at instilling socio-environmental consciousness among citizens towards the larger aim of conserving foreign exchange on fuel imports.
Shri Pradhan said that a benefit of cycling is not only limited to protect environment or fuel conservation but it also carries huge health and fitness dividends. Conservation is a collective responsibility of all of us. It will be possible only when the industries, individual citizens, organizations, Oil Companies and the Government share a collective responsibility to conserve the available resources of energy and create a cleaner environment for the future generations.
Shri Pradhan appealed to all citizens to join the movement for conserving the finite petroleum while using petroleum products in cooking, transport, agriculture and industries to extract maximum utilization and efficiency.
Minister urged to all citizens to come together and work for building a nation that is green, environmentally clean and pollution free.
Based on the distance, the Cyclothon featured three categories– Saksham Elite Race (Men– 33 km/women-22 km), and Saksham Green Ride (11km) from Kalinga Stadium to Khandagiri via Jayadev Vihar Chhak and back to Kalinga Stadium in the same route.
While the Elite categories were for serious cyclists, the 11 km Green Rides allowed participants to experience the joy of cycling, while promoting fuel conservation, with the underlying message of reducing excessive dependency on oil for a cleaner and greener environment.
The Bhubaneswar Cyclothon was organized by Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA), and supported by the oil companies like IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL, MRPL, CPCL, NRL and IGL with technical guidance from Cycling Federation of India.
More 70 such Cyclothons are planned pan-India over the next 2 to 3 months to sensitize the country to adopt the ideology of conservation for a greener environment.