Visitors at the exhibition on Sunday. Picture by Biju Boro

Feb. 15: Discovery took the front seat as the young and inquisitive brigade clambered into the Vigyan Rail at the Guwahati railway station this morning.

One of the enthusiasts, Simanta Kalita, could not hold his excitement when he saw a demonstration model on the concept of geo-synchronous and polar orbits inside the train. “This is a huge discovery for me because there would not have been a better chance to watch this in leisure,” he said.

The blue train would be stationed here for six days till February 20. The exhibition-on-wheels was aimed at popularising science in every nook and cranny of the country as 2004 has been declared Year of Scientific Awareness.

Vigyan Rail is a project conceived, formulated and implemented by Vigyan Prasar in association with the ministry of railways. It gets all the support from the department of science and technology for showcasing the country’s achievements since Independence in the field of science — scientific heritage, environment, space, communication, information technology, scientific and industrial research and water resources.

The train has 12 exhibition coaches that could cater to a wide range of young science lovers through exhibits, working models and slide and multimedia shows.

Experts and volunteers assist the visitors, while security personnel were deployed to guard the exhibits and prevent any untoward incident.

The visitors were thrilled to take a peek at the country’s moon mission project — Chandrayaan- — and models of the Indian launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV. The train even has panels displaying the use of the geographical information system (GIS) in mapping malaria in urban areas.

For the nature lovers, a “park” for research and education on butterflies of peninsular India has been created. The exhibit has been supplemented by a video show on interviews among scientists.

“Many of the models displayed here can give a fair amount of idea on doing something similar for the development of science and technology in the region,” Rajesh Barua, a college student, said.

One of the officials in the train said technology has bolstered connectivity in the country, but the rural and far-flung areas still needed a lot of catching up to do. “We should spread scientific awareness among the people in the remote areas,” he added.

Two groups of staff are manning the exhibition train — a core group from the railway board and the department of science and technology and the second group from the zonal railways.