IIT Madras to get Specialised Centre Dedicated for Railway Tech Research

CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras will soon get a specialised research centre dedicated to develop and implement technologies for the Indian Railways. The Centre for Railways Research (CRR) will become active six months to one year from now, according to the IIT.

The decision to set up a CRR in Chennai comes as part of a series of memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed between the Indian Railways and IITs on Tuesday, which will see CRRs come up in the IITs in Madras, Roorkee and Kanpur.

“There is one existing CRR in IIT Kharagpur. Now, there will be three more,” said Professor Krishnan Balasubramanian, dean, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR), IIT-Madras.  The CRR, Chennai will develop technologies for the Railways in areas that it already boasts of having significant expertise.

According to Balasubramanian, the research would include but not be limited to broader areas like smart railway technologies, safety technologies and increasing communications capabilities.  The CRR’s funds will be granted by the Indian Railways and according to the institute, there are 12 faculty members who have already written up projects for the Centre.  “We hope to have 20 faculty members and 30-40 students working on projects for the Centre within two years,” said Balasubramanian.