The Hindu : Karnataka News : From east coast to west coast in 9 hours 19 minutes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

From east coast to west coast in 9 hours 19 minutes

By Our Staff Correspondent

Ashwin Chandrashekar of Chennai in Mangalore.

MANGALORE, AUG. 15. A student of the SRM Engineering College in Chennai has created a record by reaching Panambur here from Marina in Chennai in nine hours and 19 minutes.

Ashwin Chandrashekar, who left Marina on Sunday at 5.56 a.m. on his Enfield Thunderbird, hoped to reach Panambur before sunset. But those who expected him to reach Mangalore not before 6 p.m. were surprised to receive a call that he had reached Mahaveera Circle in Mangalore, about 7 km away from the Panambur beach, at 3.15 p.m., completing the 725-km journey.

No fanfare

On his arrival here, there was no fanfare. Except some presspersons, there were no representatives from the motorcycle company or his friends to receive him.

Ashwin said that he planned his motorcycle trip on Friday. He along with his friend in Chennai planned that he would ride alone from the east coast to the west coast to mark Independence Day.

He had to maintain an average speed of 80 km per hour from the start. At times, he touched the top speed of 135 km per hour. He took just three hours and 30 minutes to reach Bangalore from Chennai.

He said though his mother tried to persuade him against his motorcycle trip, his father supported him with a word of caution.

Ashwin hails from a business family and started riding a motorcycle when he was studying in the sixth standard. Last year, he rode from Kanyakumari to Kargil in a 33-day run across the country covering 4,555 km.

World tour

He said that he would go on a world tour on his motorcycle after completing his engineering course.

However, the stretch on the Western Ghats brought down the speed to 20 km per hour. Asked if he would ride back home, he said that he would like to do so.

But since he had classes on Monday, he would return by the West Coast Express train.

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