Question : Establishment of Railway Universities

(a) the status of establishing new universities by the Railways in the country;

(b) whether the Government proposes to establish Railway Universities in backward, inaccessible and border areas of the country including Uttarakhand and Rajasthan and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether any assistance is being taken from any educational institute, private institutes and foreign agencies to make railways services better, safer and comfortable;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) whether the Railways has started any research in this regard and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

(a) National Rail & Transportation Institute (NRTI) established as a deemed to be university under de-novo category in Vadodara, Gujarat, started functioning from 5th September, 2018.

(b) No, Madam.

(c) to (e) Ministry of Railways has signed instruments of cooperation like Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC), Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) and Protocols for technical cooperation in the rail sector with various Foreign Governments and National Railways. The identified areas of cooperation, inter alia, include safety, high speed rail, speed raising of existing routes, development of world class stations, heavy haul operations, inter-modal transportation and modernization of rail infrastructure. These MoUs/MoCs/JDIs/ Protocols provide for exchange of information on developments in areas of railway technology and operations, knowledge sharing, technical visits, training and seminars and workshops in areas of mutual interest as also feasibility studies for high speed railway, speed raising on existing track, station redevelopment, capacity development in railway safety etc. Also, Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) has been signed between NRTI and Cornell University, USA, University of California, Berkeley, USA, Moscow State University of Railway Engineering (MIIT) and St. Petersburg Transport University, Russia.
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