Displaying their inventive streak, students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering located in Karnataka’s Mysuru have come up with bamboo as an environmentally-friendly and less costly alternative to steel construction.

The students Nishanth, Karthik MP and Mahendra Halamandage have converted bamboo into a type of mesh and from this they constructed a spherical shell. This can be used to make slabs and they claim that it can bear 700 kilograms of weight.

Sharing further details about this, the Professor who assisted these students, Dr. Umesha P. K. disclosed that the shell is lightweight thus making it low-cost and also low in terms of maintenance. Further, he added that it is resistant to corrosion, weather-proof and economical.

What makes them even better is that construction using these bamboo-based methods will also provide resistance from earthquakes, said the Professor.

Use of bamboo will provide a fillip to its cultivation while reducing carbon footprints substantially. Talking to the media, Nishanth said: “In order to produce 1 tonne of steel, 2.4 tonne of carbon dioxide will be emitted to the atmosphere. This is the major issue we have tried to solve using bamboo.”

The slabs made of bamboo can be put to several uses including covering water tanks, septic tanks, making roofs for low-cost toilets, while ensuring durability.

Recognising this project, last year the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology designated it as an outstanding scientific achievement.

Meanwhile, the college has also filed for a patent of this concept.

Also read: Bengaluru’s public transport gets its first electric bus