The National Academy of Indian Railways already exists in Vadodara.
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet approved on Wednesday a project to set up India’s National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) in Vadodara in Gujarat.
The Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also approved a new skill development scheme having an outlay of Rs 1,300 crore with an aim to create jobs in the organised textile and related sectors. The National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) already exists in Vadodara.
A not-for-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, will be created by the ministry of railways which shall be the managing company of the proposed university, the ministry said in a statement. The project has been pending for the past three years.
The company will provide financial and infrastructural support to the university, and appoint Chancellor and Pro- Chancellor of the university, the statement said.
A board of management, comprising professionals and academics, shall be independent of the Managing Company with full autonomy to perform its academic and administrative responsibilities, it informed further.
Officers say that the university plans to use latest pedagogy and technology applications such as satellite based tracking, Radio Frequency Identification and Artificial Intelligence to improve on-the-job performance and productivity.
“Existing land and infrastructure at NAIR at Vadodara, Gujarat, will be utilised, and suitably modified and modernised for the purpose of the university. In its full enrolment, it is expected to have 3,000 full-time students. The funding of the new University/ Institute is to entirely come from ministry of railways,” the statement said.
In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that a railway university was needed for the research and modernisation of the country’s archaic railway system in particular, and transport infrastructure in general. It was subsequently included in the Railway Budget in 2014.
The new scheme for skill development in textile sector, approved by the Cabinet, will cover the entire value chain of textiles, excluding spinning and weaving in the organised sector.
Around 10 lakh people are expected to be skilled and certified in various segments of the textile sector through the scheme, out of which 1 lakh will be in traditional sectors, an official statement said.
At least 70 per cent of the certified trainees are to be placed in the wage employment and post-placement tracking will be mandatory under the scheme, it added.
The scheme will have National Skill Qualification Framework compliant training courses with funding norms as per the Common Norms notified by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
The objectives of the scheme are to provide demand driven, placement-oriented skilling programme to incentivise the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the organised textile and related sectors, it said.
