Dhanbad, Feb. 7: It missed the speed crown, albeit by a whisker.

Scoring 796 on a scale of 1,000, the all-terrain vehicle developed by 17 mechanical engineering students of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, steered ahead of most rivals to bag the second prize at the Asia-level JK Tyre Baja SAE INDIA 2010 contest at Pitampura, Indore, last month.

Today, it was put on display at the annual alumni meet of the institute, Basant 2010, to celebrate a much-deserved victory.

The three-day Asia-level event — from January 29 to 31 — saw more than 80 technical institutes from across the country, including IITs and NITs, participating.

The ISM team, which pocketed a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh, trailed Maharastra Institute of Technology (MIT), Aurangabad, that posted a win with 798 points.

The vehicles were judged on technical, design and emission parameters before being put to static and dynamic tests. Participating teams were also required to present expenditure details — the ISM ATV rolled out in three months and at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh — that were evaluated on the spot by highly qualified professionals.

The one-of-its-kind competition provides students a world-class opportunity to simulate real-world engineering.

The ISM vehicle like the one prepared by MIT, Aurangabad, survived severe punishment of rough terrain.

Buoyed by the achievement, Ashutosh Pandey, a final-year student said they would undertake more such projects in the near future. “We worked really hard for the past three months, often staying back late at the institute workshop. We didn’t even take our Durga Puja break and completed the project in time.”

Notably, this ATV is the second developed by ISM. In January 2009, the ISM team had flaunted a prototype at the same meet organised by Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE).

Faculty member N.K. Singh guided the students in both projects.

The ATV team was divided into small groups and each was assigned a separate task. “It was team work that paid rich dividend,” said Vinay Chaudhary, a final-year student who was part of the design team.