Vadodara: In a step towards setting up the country’s first Railway university, an MoU will be signed tomorrow between National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) here and Maharaja Sayajirao University to award MBA degrees to rail employees in various fields like accounts and personnel.

NAIR, the apex training institute for imparting training to railway officers, has been selected for upgradation as a full-fledged Railway University as part of efforts to enhance the skills of railway officers.

It is envisioned that Railway University, when set up, would act as an affiliating University. Five other premier Central Training Institutes of the Railways at Pune, Nasik, Jamalpur, Secunderabad and Lucknow, which train officers of various specific disciplines in the Railways, would be affiliated as constituent colleges.

As a measure of enhancing professional management education in the railway field to the Probationary Officers, it was decided that NAIR shall tie-up with Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara for awarding MBA degree in specific Railway fields to Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) and Indian Railway Store Service (IRSS) officers, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The MoU will be signed by Union Minister Suresh Prabhu and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani here. This was ratified earlier by the academic council and Senate of MS University.

Railway probationary officers who are currently trained at NAIR, will study and obtain MBA degree from the University with specialisation in respective fields such as Finance, Human Resource Management, Production and Operations Management and Marketing Management.

The tie-up also enables MS University to select students at their end for MBA along with Railway officers. These students will also be awarded MBA degree in respective disciplines.

He said this will also serve the requirements of railway-related infrastructural construction contractors, suppliers, Metros and Port Railways.

They can also seek employment in Railways, by appearing in exam conducted by UPSC, he said.

The programme starts with the first batch of IRSS joining NAIR in August 2016.

Other initiatives for railway related education and research as a railway budget initiative, four Centres of Railway Research (CRR) were to be set up in premier educational institutions of India.
Memorandum of Understandings have since been signed between Ministry of Railways and University of Mumbai on April 18, 2015, IITs Kanpur, Madras and Roorkee on December 22, 2015. One Centre for Railway Research is also in existence at IIT Kharagpur.

The areas of research are also earmarked for these different CRRs based on the core competencies of the different institutes. It is expected that these Centres for Railway Research would contribute immensely towards providing solutions for utilisation of Railways assets in a more cost-effective manner and its various processes towards complete customer satisfaction.

To expand the areas of research further, Indian Railways have also set up the Malviya Chair at IIT BHU, Varanasi for development of proper materials for use by Indian Railways and a ‘Chair on Sustainable Mobility’ has also been set up at TERI University, New Delhi.

The assigned areas of the CRRs include civil infrastructure of high speed rail, bridges and structures, track management system, environmental engineering, and rail wheel dynamics at IIT Roorkee.

Geo-tech engineering, advanced fuel efficient systems, fire safety management, advanced electronics, high speed rolling stock design, advanced signalling and fog vision at IIT Kanpur are among other assigned areas of the CRRs.

IIT Madras will have structural health monitoring of railway infrastructure, intelligent transportation, computer vision and imaging, reliability engineering and energy management.

RDSO, the research arm of the Indian Railways is coordinating with all the CRRs and chairs.

Centre for Railway Research, Mumbai University shall carry out research related to heavy haul technology, high-speed technologies, energy efficient traction power supply systems and track research.

The CRR will in due course also offer degree programme, post graduate programmes and PhD programme in research areas related to Railways and will also involve students in research projects and offer course electives related to Railway technology.

Mumbai University’s academic council has recently approved a undergraduate course in Railway Engineering for the current academic year at the Railway Research Centre at their Ratnagiri sub-campus.

PTI