New Delhi: In a unique effort and as per vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister for “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, three Ministries of the Union Government have joined hands to propel the Technology Mission for Indian Railways (TMIR). The Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Department of Science & Technology (Ministry of Science & Technology) signed an MoU, on 4th January, 2018 at Rail Bhawan, New Delhi for joint funding of TMIR.
The MOU was signed today by Chairman/TMIR Prof. N.S. Vyas; Shri Alok Kumar, Co-Chairman/TMIR, on behalf of Ministry of Railways; Shri R. Subrahmanyam, Additional Secretary (TE) on behalf of Ministry of Human Resource Development and Dr. Neeraj Sharma, Adviser/DST on behalf of Ministry of Science and Technology.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board said, “An MOU is being signed to facilitate collaboration and cooperation between the Parties in ‘Technology Mission for Indian Railways’. This MOU will facilitate the co-financing of ‘Technology Mission for Indian Railways’ by investment sharing for identified railway projects for applied research. The funding component of MOR is 30%, MHRD is 25%, DST is 25%. This Technology Mission will provide forceful impetus to India’s growth engine on the ‘Make in India’ vision track of the Hon’ble Prime Minister. The indigenous technologies would successfully be developed with win-win scenario to all the consortium members. While Indian Railways would get the world class technologies, Academic & Research Institutions would get involved in numerous applied research projects which would help them in reorienting research towards national objectives. I wish this Technology Mission with the motto of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” a great success and hope that ground-breaking applied research done under the Mission will help Indian Railways provide a safer, more comfortable, hassle-free and faster journey to all rail users and will make Indian Railways the world leader”
Shri K.K. Sharma, Secretary/MHRD & Dr. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary/DST also spoke on the occasion.
The Ministry of Railways had set up the Technology Mission for Indian Railways (TMIR) as a consortium of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Science & Technology on an investment sharing model for taking up identified railway projects for applied research and use on Indian Railways.
As per this MoU, Ministry of HRD and Ministry of Science & Technology have agreed to fund the TMIR projects to the tune of Rs.75 crore each while Railways and Industries will also contribute to their respective shares.
The Technology Mission will take up R&D 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 industry. The projects will be implemented in the national R&D labs and academic institutions. Collaborations, wherever essential, will be entered into with similar foreign institutions.
The “Mission Implementation and Coordination Committee” (MICC), consists of nominees of Railways, RDSO, Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Science & Technology and is headed by Prof. N.S. Vyas of IIT-Kanpur as Mission Chairman and Shri Alok Kumar, Chief Admin. Officer/Const/NR as Co-Chairman/TMIR.
While through this consortium approach for technology development in mission mode, Railway will be benefitted with availability of world class indigenized technologies at very reasonable cost, academic research institutions will be benefitted with applied research and real situation output in the form of new products for immediate use and with availability of source codes for all such indigenized technologies at very low cost. The Indian industries will also be gaining in the form of production of new items to be used on Indian Railways with additional export potential, helping in the national cause of revenue generation and on the theme of ‘Make in India’.
Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board; Shri K.K. Sharma, Secretary/MHRD; Dr. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary/DST; Senior officials from all the concerned Ministries graced the occasion. Members from press & media were also present during the MoU signing ceremony.
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