BELGAUM: 26-year-old Dhiraj Revankar from Belgaum has travelled all the way to Hotel Taj on a bicycle, covering a distance of about 550 km, to pay homage to those killed in the Mumbai terror attacks. Revankar commenced his fourday journey from Belgaum on December 22. It was flagged off by Superintendent of Pol ice Sonia Narang.
During his tour, he came across many people who later became good friends after knowing the motive of his journey. “Every stranger I met was ready to help as he too wanted to pay his respect to the victims through my mission,” he pointed.
During his tour, Revankar halted at Kolhapur, Satara, Pune and finally reached Mumbai. No one sponsored his journey as he did not ask for it. He wanted to complete his tour on his own. It is not for the first time that Revankar has set out on a bicyle to complete his mission.
He had pedalled to many places, some of which are farther than Mumbai.
“I developed this passion when I was just 9 years.
When I turned 16, I found a strong reason to ride the bicycle.
It was to keep the environment free from pollution and my tours on bicycle were spreading the same message among people,” Revankar told The Express.
He said that he had cycled from Belgaum to Kolhapur to encourage the Indian team in the World Cup cricket in 1999.
After that, it was just for spreading the message ‘Ride Bicycle, stop Pollution’, he added. In 2001, Revankar travelled from Belgaum to Goa and in 2002, he covered 525 km from Belgaum to Bangalore in four days. He conducted a 18-day-long journey to Delhi (2100 km) in 2003 and in 2004, his destination was Kanyakumari (2500 km), a journey of 21 days.
In 2005, he reached Shri Nagar (3350 km) in 28 days.
In 2008, he cycled to Kathmandu in Nepal (3500 km) in 27 days. He cycled all the way just to create awareness about pollution - free environment.
