By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 21, 2020: THE Chairman, Railway Board, Mr Vinod Kumar Yadav and Lord Karan Billimoria, Chancellor, University of Birmingham announced the launch of a Joint Masters programme in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration in academic year 2020-2021 by the National Rail Transportation Institute (NRTI). Mr Rajesh Tiwari, Member Traction and other senior officials of Railway Board along with Professor Sir David Eastwood, Vice-chancellor and faculty members of University of Birmingham were present on the occasion.

Mr Yadav said it was the dream of the Prime Minister to develop a Railway University which can look into all aspects of transportation. Over the last few years, a lot of transformational work has been done by Railways; focus has been on capacity enhancement and modernisation of Railways. Indian Railways looks forward for a long term association with University of Birmingham.

Sir David Eastwood, Vice-chancellor said that University of Birmingham is delighted to work with Indian Railways. University of Birmingham has a proven track record in delivering high quality programmes. He expressed his gratitude for getting the opportunity to work with Indian Railways.

The programme that has been launched leads to dual M.Sc. that would see NRTI students obtaining two post graduate degrees from both institutions, after spending a year studying at each institution. It will also provide flexibility for some modules of the programme to be delivered online in the form of a Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) and support for undergraduate teaching by University of Birmingham faculty at NRTI. This initiative will benefit NRTI students by providing them access to world class expertise and facilities in railway systems at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE). BCRRE is also expected to gain valuable insights into India's transport sector and get involved in related research and development issues in the country.

The initiative has been taken under the Centre of Excellence for Next Generation Transportation Systems that had been set up by an MoU between the National Rail Transport Institute with the University of Birmingham on December 18th, 2019.

Earlier, during the day, faculty from University of Birmingham conducted a workshop on ETCS level 2 signalling which was attended by officials from Railway Board, Northern Railway, Railtel and other Zonal Railways by video link. A significant progress has been made in the research project on the analysis of line capacity improvement with ETCS level 2 on the Jhansi Bina Section of the North Central Railway. This would be first formal project under the MoU which will develop a combined signalling and operations-based simulation of the Jhansi Bina section of NCR using the Birmingham Railway Simulation Suite.

About the National Rail Transport Institute

The National Rail Transport Institute has been set up as a deemed to be university and has been operational since 2018. In addition to Schools and Departments in various disciplines, NRTI aims to develop interdisciplinary Centres of Excellence which would be collaborative constructs to promote research and education to the transportation sector. NRTI's strategy is focussed upon sourcing the best expertise from around the world from leading global institutions through institutional partnerships for collaborating on developing curriculum, research projects and executive education programs. Further details about the institution are available at www.nrti.edu.in

About University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is home to the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) with over 150 academics, researchers and professional services staff, delivering world-class research, education and leadership to the global rail industry. The BCRRE is the largest university-based centre for railway research and education in Europe, involved in developing world-leading new technologies alongside higher education programmes, research and innovations in Climate Change, Aerodynamics and International Benchmarking, Power Systems and Energy Use, Railway Control and Operations Simulation.