Hundreds of excited school children attended the inaugural event at Gandhinagar Railway Station, on 4th of December 2010, to witness Pappu Zebra and his friends boarding the train. The students were very interested in the message from Pappu Zebra that increasing pollution from automobiles had a damaging effect on the world’s ozone layer, thus contributing to global warming. Messages on energy conservation from Uncle Dash & Baby Pom found ready acceptance in the young minds. The Science Express also contains materials that sensitise students on issues such as Environment protection, Biodiversity Conservation, and promotion of Sustainable Agriculture, through the eye-catching mascots, O2, E-worM, and Manjulakutty. All the characters have been created by the renowned Artist Nandan Pillai, and appear as the central figures in highly effective awareness programmes implemented by OrgPEOPLE on contemporary public interest issues.
The Chief Guest at the inaugural event at Ahmedabad Gandhinagar Railway Station was Sri Ravi Saxena IAS, Addl Chief Secretary, Govt. of Gujarat. Other dignitaries present were Dr K K Dwivedi, Advisor, Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India, Sri Karthikeya Sarabhai, Chairman, Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC), Dr Chander Mohan, Chief Executive, Science Express, Sri Dilip Surkar, Exec. Director, VASCSC, Sri Garud, DRM, Western Railway, Sri Paresh Taparia, Associate VP, HSBC, Sri Vinay Varma Raja, Director, OrgPEOPLE, and Artist Nandan Pillai, the creator of the popular public awareness mascots.