the etuktuk project

We started our journey at about 1.00p.m. Destination was a temple in Kurunduwatta. Kurunduwatta is about 15 km from Gampola and it’s a suburban area situated in the Dolosbage Mountains. Fore of us traveled in the etuktuk, Asanka the driver, Anil the program producer, Prasanna volunteer, and me. The road was hilly and we had to drive slowly. It took about 45 minutes to get to the temple.

It was their annual meeting of the village welfare society. The villagers had organized a small cultural show in the temple after the meeting. When we got there the meeting was about to start. Therefore we had to stay two more hours until the meeting end. We decided to leave the temple for the time being and come back in two hours.

Kurunduwatta area is a partly remote place. Public transportation is comparatively less. The terrain is covered with tea plantation at some areas. Paddy is a common site. Most people in the area travel to the nearby city ‘Gampola’ to work. Others do farming, day to day labor etc. Kurunduwatta town is a developing small town. Most basic facilities of the town are still under construction.

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eTukTuk– the Sri Lankan experience
Up in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, near Kandy, I came across an amazing experiment in taking the fruits of ICT directly to the poor. The eTukTuk project is part of the Kothmale Community Radio station and Multi-media Centre. A cursory look at the eTukTuk and one would be tempted to dismiss it as just another Bajaj autorickshaw that’s as common in Sri Lanka as coconut palms. But this is no ordinary three-wheeler: inside the tuktuk is a complete radio-station and telecentre – with computer, printer, scanner, digital camera and Internet connection.

The eTukTuk is the most accessible of telecentres – it putters along the dirt roads of Kothmale, travelling to distant villages, bringing the benefits of ICTs to the homes of the people.

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eTUKTUK, TAKING INFORMATION DOWN THE BUMPY DIRT-ROAD IN SRI LANKA

Up in the hills of Kothmale, about 25 kilometres southwest of Kandy in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, a strange hybrid vehicle can be seen sputtering along the dirt tracks of Kothmale’s villages. At first glance, it is an autorickshaw or tuktuk, a familiar sight on the roads of South Asia and as common on the streets of Sri Lanka as sarongs.

But this is no ordinary three-wheeler. This is the eTukTuk, the world’s first radio-station and multimedia centre on three wheels.

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When I reached Kothmale on 10 May, the eTukTuk was already in its lair — a converted kitchen in the Kothmale CR building — having been driven the 150 odd kilometers from Colombo to Kothmale by a visibly tired Ben and his crew. But there was work to be done — a field broadcast was scheduled that evening, the eTukTuk’s first community OB (Outside Broadcast) event in Kothmale, at the village of Weliganga.

Weliganga (’river-flats’) clings to a hillside a few kilometers downhill from KCR. As the tuktuk rolls into a
small clearing with a dilapidated shed at its far end, alight monsoon rain begins to fall. Within minutes the crew has fired up the transmitter and laptop, and cables snake across the wet grass.

The tuktuk’s transmitter is a vintage 50 watt FM exciter, a clunky beast that goes back to the early days of KCR and is too big fit anywhere except on the rooftop rack. (This is an obvious worry for the Kothmale station — you don’t carry sensitive broadcast equipment on an exposed rack in the monsoon — and they are raising the funds to buy a sleeker model that will fit inside the tuktuk). I watch bemused as an 18 foot antenna mast is swiftly put together from three lengths of galvanized iron pipe clamped end-to-end.

Sunil Shanta, KCR’s relief announcer launches into a practiced spiel that’s fed into the twin speakers mounted on the tuktuk’s roof. Soon, the clearing and the shed fill with an expectant crowd — mostly women and children — some carrying plastic chairs and mats.

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etuktuk takes internet and radio to Sri Lankan villages

In the hilly region of Kothmale in central Sri Lanka, the tuk-tuk, the three wheeled motorcycle, which is a favoured form of local transport common in South Asia, is all set to take a new form as a self-contained mobile telecentre. Kothmale Community Radio (KCR) has devised a new innovative approach of content delivery and radio production, in line with the station’s commitment to increasing access and participation to new and traditional ICTs and providing voice and expression to the community it serves.

The eTUKTUK is a self-contained mobile telecentre and radio broadcasting unit which travels into remote villages in the Kothmale region and provide communities the opportunity to participate in the KCR’s programming as well as have access to new digital technologies and internet.

The eTUKTUK contains a laptop computer, battery operated printer, camera, telephone and scanner. Internet is provided via a CDMA enabled wireless connection and electricity is provided via a generator. A roof rack allows the vehicle to carry other equipment such as the Kothmale Community Radio Station’s mobile broadcasting unit. Narrowcasting of radio programs is done using the two loud speakers mounted to the roof rack. This system is used to announce the telecentre’s presence when it arrives in a village or designated location. The weekly route of the eTUKTUK is broadcast over the radio to inform the listeners about the location and time that it will arrive in their community.

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Steve Buckley, President, World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), comments on the eTUKTUK.

Steve made this comment recently when he witnessed the etuktuk in action at the AMARC Asia Pacific Forum recently held in Colombo, “…it seems to me you’ve got a great vehicle both in the physical and the symbolic sense to go out to the communities and the neighbourhoods and to let people speak through their community radio station. I hope to see many other community radio stations with eTUKTUKs in the future because I think that this is a trend that is going to catch on.”

The project has featured in a variety of news sources recently:

Hindustani
India eNews
Daily India
New Kerala
The Economic Times

The eTUKTUK will be covering the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) Asia Pacific Round Table discussion in Colombo on May 4th 2006. The topic of discussion is ‘Community Radio & its Social Impact: Removing barriers, increasing effectiveness’. So come on down to BMICH or tune in to KCR on 96.1FM to join in the festivities.

AMARC

The eTUKTUK was displayed at the World Press Freedom Day International conference in Colombo on May 1-3rd 2006. The theme for this years programme is the correlation between media freedom and the eradication of poverty. Unfortunately the live broadcast was not possible due to security concerns.

World Press Freedom Day

The eTUKTUK will be officially launched at the Kothmale Radio Listeners Club get together on Saturday 29th of April at the Kothmale Community Radio Station. For further details on the launch please email info@etuktuk.net or see below.

PRESS RELEASE

The Kothmale Internet Listeners Club in association with UNESCO, the MJF Foundation and Suntel is glad to announce the launch of the eTUKTUK at the Kothmale Community Radio Station on the 29th of April 2006.

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