Indian Railways extends MoU with IIT Kanpur for setting up Center for Railway Research and expediting research and development for Railways.

Indian Railways has extended the Memorandum of Understanding with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to encourage state of the art collaborative research for modernization of Railway Infrastructure and efficient utilization of its scientific assets through the Centre for Railway Research (CRR) at IIT Kanpur.

The MoU was signed between Ms. Alka Arora Misra, Principal Executive Director (T&MPP), Ministry of Railways and Prof AR Harish, Dean,R and D, IIT Kanpur in the august presence of Chairman & CEO, Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav, Prof Abhay Karandikar Director IIT Kanpur, Director General(HR), PED(T&MPP), Vashishtha Johri, General Manager, Southern Railway, and Prof R. Hegde Head CRR IIT Kanpur.

Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, Prof. Ravindra Gettu, IIT Madras were also present among others on this august occasion.

Prof Abhay Karandikar spoke on the importance of this collaboration in the context of modernization of Indian Railways for the development of cutting edge technologies in the areas of electronics, sensor networks, IoT, power electronics, and electrical safety. He also spoke on related research and development activities being carried out at IIT Kanpur in the domain areas of relevance to Indian Railways.

The MoU will facilitate research in the core area of Electrical Locomotive, Motive Power, Locomotive Control and Communication Systems, Traction Installation, Condition based monitoring, Train and track safety using signal processing, Power and vehicle control electronics, Driver interface systems, Train level sensor networks and IoT,Electrical Safety, Network Control, Staff Training in related technical areas through the Centre for Railway Research (CRR) at IIT Kanpur. Currently CRR has its administrative unit located in the Department of Electrical Engineering. The Centre for Railway Research (CRR) at the Department of Electrical Engineering in IIT Kanpur has been assigned with the broad research domain of Loco Research & Propulsion Technologies, Traction Installation/OHE, and associated electronics.

About Indian Railways :

Indian Railways (IR) is operating one of the largest railway systems in the World transporting billions of passengers and over 1000 million tons of freight annually. Indian Railways also has its own facilities for production of locomotives and other rolling stock. Excellent communication systems support the infrastructure. To continue its phenomenal growth, Indian Railways is embarking on a major refocusing on Technology supported innovative solutions. The objective is to improve the quality of services offered and also to enhance the productive utilization of rail infrastructure while simultaneously managing costs. Indian Railways aims to supplement import of Technology through development of indigenous technologies with the support from National Institutions of Higher Learning such as the IITs.

About IIT Kanpur :

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, established in 1959, is one of the premier institutions established by the Government of India. The aim of the Institute is to provide meaningful education, to conduct original research of the highest standard and to provide leadership in technological innovation. Researchers at IIT Kanpur do high level research often at the forefront in its area. The diversity of research projects undertaken by IITK is a measure of the strong track record of research at IITK. It is the result of the great synergy between the fundamental research and applied research done at IITK. The research environment supports highly creative work done by a small group. At the same time the environment is suitable for managing the large mission critical assignments that are undertaken at IITK. Leveraging the research capabilities of IITK can give research organizations the decisive edge they seek. The in-depth approach leads to outcomes that deliver lasting value. The IITK client list includes leading companies worldwide.