About an hour's drive from Delhi, dozens of Bechtel volunteers are working enthusiastically with partner organizations to light up the village of Sirohi, whose 3,500 citizens have suffered for want of sufficient electric light and whose social, commercial, and educational activities largely halt with each setting of the sun.
But the sun's at the core of the solution to the problem. The lighting project, aided by Bechtel funding, is providing Sirohi's residents with solar-powered LED fixtures and related infrastructure. Phase 1 supplied lighting to some 50 houses, Phase 2 provided for another 150 homes, and Phase 3 is under way to benefit the people living in more than 350 additional dwellings.
The project operates under the aegis of Engineers Without Borders - India. Less than a year ago, Bechtel's New Delhi office formed a new EWB chapter, and Project Sirohi is the chapter's first full-blown effort. Bechtel also helped create EWB - India student chapters at two premier Indian engineering schools—Delhi Technological University and National Power Training Institute—and they have contributed to the Sirohi endeavor.
Engineers Without Borders is one of five Signature Programs that Bechtel supports around the world with funding and employee volunteers. Bechtel’s other Signature Programs are Engineers Week, FIRST® Robotics, Junior Achievement®, and Ocean Exploration Trust.
Good news coverage of the effort appeared in the Hindu Times ("Let there be light") and on TIMES NOW television ("A beacon of hope for Sirohi").
