NEW
DELHI, JAN 4:
Three central
ministries have come together to drive a technology mission for Indian
Railways, which would be beneficial for both the national transporter and
academic and research institutions.
A memorandum of
understanding (MoU) on Technology Mission for Indian Railways (TMIR) was signed
today by the ministries of railways, human resource development (HRD), and
science and technology. The agreement will “facilitate collaboration and
cooperation” between the ministries.
“While the
Indian Railways would get the world class technologies, academic and research
institutions would get involved in numerous applied research projects which
would help them in reorienting research towards national objectives,” Railway
Board chairman Ashwani Lohani said.
“This MoU will
facilitate the co-financing of Technology Mission for Indian Railways by
investment sharing for identified railway projects for applied research,” he
said. The funding component of the railways ministry is 30 per cent, the HRD
ministry is 25 per cent and the department of science and technology (DST) 25
per cent.
INDIGENOUS
TECH
Lohani further
said that the indigenous technologies would successfully be developed with
“win-win scenario” to all the consortium members. The Technology Mission will
take up research and development projects in the areas of heavy haul, safety,
energy, environment and urban railways.
The projects
will be implemented through a Mission Implementation and Coordination Committee
having members from the three ministries, academia and the industry. The
projects will be implemented in the national research and development labs and
academic institutions. Collaborations, wherever essential, will be entered into
with similar foreign institutions.
The MoU was
signed by TMIR chairman Professor N S Vyas, Alok Kumar, co-chairman, TMIR, on
behalf of the Ministry of Railways, R Subrahmanyam, Additional Secretary, on
behalf of Ministry of Human Resource Development and Dr Neeraj Sharma, Adviser,
DST on behalf of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Source:
