Three Central Ministries have come together to drive a technology mission for the Railways, which will be beneficial for both the national transporter and academic and research institutions.

A memorandum of understanding on Technology Mission for Indian Railways was signed on Thursday by the Ministries of Railways, Human Resource Development (HRD) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The agreement will “facilitate collaboration and cooperation” between the Ministries.

“While the Railways will get world-class technologies, academic and research institutions will get involved in numerous applied research projects which will help them in reorienting research towards national objectives,” Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani said.

Co-financing plans

“This MoU will facilitate the co-financing of Technology Mission for Indian Railways by investment sharing for identified railway projects for applied research,” he added.

The Railway Ministry will fund 30 per cent of the project, while the other two ministries will put in 25 per cent each.

Lohani further said indigenous technologies will 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 R&D labs and academic institutions.

Global tie-ups

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.