Aimed at carrying out innovation and modernisation of the Indian Railways, the country’s first railway university will be established in Vadodara, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced.
The Prime Minister made the announcement during his recent visit to Gujarat. “The government has taken a very important decision whose impact will be felt for nearly 100 years. And the decision is that country’s first railway university will be constructed in Vadodara,” Modi said.
The PM was in his home state to inaugurate the terminal building of Vadodara airport, which is now the country’s second green airport after Kochi.
The Indian Railway is one of the world’s largest railway networks, but capacity building and modernisation is major challenge for it. To address this, the Railways has prepared a five-year Action Plan.
According to the National Transport Development Policy Committee, Indian Railways would require about Rs 32,00,000 crore worth of investment till 2032.
The Indian Railways would need to have additional 20,000 track kilometers in the next five years, double the progress of electrification of tracks (10,000 km) and introduce train set technologies.
The opening of railway university will help the network to carry out dedicated research in areas like network decongestion, development of freight corridors, safety works in terms of track renewal, signalling and level-crossing.
