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Tribune News Service
Srinagar, September 2
Eight Kashmiri students studying at Aryans Engineering College in Chandigarh have developed an application to book a shikara ride at the Dal Lake.
The application named ‘Aryans Shikara App’ was launched in Srinagar where Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the All-India Council for Technical Education, addressed the students through videoconferencing.
Appreciating their efforts, Anshu Kataria, chairman of the college, said the students had created a platform where details of all shikara owners had been made available.
“From Gate Number 1 to 20, all shikara owners’ details have been made available on this application. Now, the tourists can choose the gate and owner of the shikara well in advance. On the other hand, shikara owners also have the choice to accept or reject the offers,” he said during a press conference at Hotel Lala Rukh in Srinagar.
More than 2,000 students from various parts of J&K are studying in the college, the chairman added.
One of the developers Shakir Ahmad said the idea struck them while booking a cab.
“We have used Uber and Ola applications for cab bookings. It was after this that the idea of developing an application for booking shikaras struck us,” he added.
Another student Riyaz Rasool said the college motivated us for thinking out of the box as many students from the Valley had developed innovative applications earlier as well. “We worked hard in collecting the details of shikara owners, generating a database and bringing the same on a single platform,” Riyaz added.
Earlier, the students from the college came up with a ‘solar boat’, which became a point of attraction at the Dal Lake. The application can be downloaded from ‘Google Play Store’ on Android mobile phones.
‘Aryans Shikara App’
What they said...
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