IIT Guwahati to provide expertise to the Northeast Frontier Railway for better operation and expansion of the rail network across the Northeastern states

Guwahati: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on 23rd April 2021 to collaborate on research projects to better serve the needs of the northeastern states. NFR is one of the 17 railway zones of the Indian Railways and is responsible for operation and expansion of rail network all across Northeastern states and some districts of Bihar and West Bengal.

The MoU was signed by Prof. Vimal Katiyar, Dean, Research & Development, IIT Guwahati, and Mr. Yogesh Verma, Chief Planning & Design Engineer, NFR, in the graceful presence of Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “Under this collaboration, both the organizations will jointly execute various research projects in the areas not limited to Geo technical assistance, Structure, Bridges, Information Technology, Overhead equipment, Signalling & safety assessment, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based predictive maintenance systems, Internet of Things (IoT) design features, Improving maintenance and operations of rolling stock, yards, train operations and Green Technologies in order to cater the needs of Northeast people and has agreed to partner NFR in developing world class railway stations in this region.”

Further, IIT Guwahati will also support NFR to make their stations plastic free by providing alternate Biodegradable polymer based technologies.

Mr. Yogesh Verma, Chief Planning & Design Engineer, NFR, emphasised that the multi-disciplinary approach would be adopted to find solutions to the problems with an aim towards improving maintenance & operations of train running and other identified fields under this cooperation.

Expressing his views on this collaboration, Prof. Vimal Katiyar, Dean, Research & Development, IIT Guwahati, said, “IIT Guwahati will take a lead to provide cutting edge technical know-how and training support in multi-facet areas to fulfil NFR requirements.”