IIT Kharagpur, IRIMEE partner to train Indian Railways officials in modern railway technologies

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has signed a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (IRIMEE), Jamalpur. This will boost technical expertise in modern railway technologies.

IIT Kharagpur’s Centre for Railway Research (CRR) will look after the collaboration, which will provide specialised residential training for the officials of Indian Railways. The programmes will focus on Vande Bharat trains and key areas of railway engineering. 

These training programmes include traction and propulsion systems, electrical safety, Train Control and Management System (TCMS), rolling stock diagnostics, condition monitoring, reliability engineering and regenerative braking.

The collaboration will bring together academic expertise and railway training so that officials get greater exposure to technologies which are used in modern trains and railway systems. The training sessions will have both classroom sessions with laboratory experiments, along with practical exercises and field visits.

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IIT Kanpur MoU on modern railway systems

Through the partnership, Indian Railways officials will get hands-on exposure to the operation, maintenance and reliability of modern rolling stock. The collaboration will also cover reliability engineering and regenerative braking. 

The Vande Bharat training will include electrical, traction and propulsion systems, and find ways to monitor equipment and find faults. Participants can also learn about electrical safety, TCMS, equipment performance and methods for finding problems in train systems.

The five-year collaboration will support the development of technical skills within Indian Railways. It will also bring educational institutions and the railway sector closer. Both IIT Kanpur and Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering said the initiative will develop reliable railway systems.

The MoU was signed by Swagata Dasgupta, Dean of Outreach at IIT Kharagpur, and Prem Prakash, Dean of IRIMEE. Vikranth Racherla from IIT Kharagpur and Siddharth Shankar from IRIMEE have been appointed as the nodal officers for the collaboration.