DIRECTORS’ ADDRESS
Collaborative Degree Programme MoU signed: Text
of the address by Sri Pradeep Kumar ’68, Director, IRIMEE, in the function held
on August 21, 1999.
This
is indeed a momentous occasion for all of us here at this Institute. Today we
are taking a big step forward in upgrading our training activities. Shortly we
are going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Birla Institute of
Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, for a Collaborative Degree Programme. This degree
programme is for the four-year undergraduate level training of the Special
Class Railway Apprentices or SCAs.
This Institute has been training the
SCAs from the year 1927, that is
for over 72 years now. And the need for a recognised degree programme for SCAs
has been felt for quite some time. This Collaborative Degree Programme meets
this long felt need. In fact I am aware
that at least in the last 15-20 years, frequent efforts had been made for a
degree programme for the Special Class Apprentices. I am happy that today we
would be signing this MoU for the Collaborative Degree Programme.
Before
coming to the details of the collaborative programme, I would like to make a
brief mention of the two broad categories of training activities at this
Institute:
. First is the training of Special Class Apprentices
which is an undergraduate level engineering degree programme of four years duration, and
. The second is as we call it - the Professional Training
on rolling- stock and workshop technology for officers and supervisors of
Indian Railways.
And
in the second category itself, I can
classify the initial one and half years induction training of the probationary officers of the Indian Railway
Service of Mechanical Engineers, conducted by this Institute.
Now about the Collaborative Degree Programme for the Special Class
Railway Apprentices: all the Special Class Railway Apprentices or SCAs who join
here at IRIMEE will register with BIT for BE degree in Mechanical engineering,
and will be treated at par with BIT's own students of BE (Mech) degree programme.
The SCAs will continue to be recruited through selection by UPSC. The semesters
for SCAs at IRIMEE will be synchronised with BIT's semesters. The SCAs will now
undergo eight semesters, as per BIT's course structure. In addition, the SCAs
will have four workshop sessions in between the semesters. I would also like to
inform that the BIT have kindly agreed to include railway specific subjects in
the course structure, mostly against 'electives' or optional subjects.
The BIT have also agreed to periodically review the course structure
jointly with IRIMEE, particularly with a view to take care of railway specific
requirements mainly relating to rolling stock. The course structure will take
into account the fact that the Railway Mechanical engineers are responsible for
design, manufacture and maintenance of diesel-electric locomotives, besides
other rolling stock. And the diesel-electric locomotives have sophisticated
electrical, electronic and microprocessor controls. The courses for SCAs will
therefore include digital electronics, power electronics, and microprocessor
controls as applied to diesel-electric traction. They will also include rail
wheel interaction, rolling-stock
element design, hydraulics as applicable to breakdown cranes, finite element analyses,
etc. The collaborative programme pursued by SCAs at IRIMEE, will lead to award
of bachelors degree in mechanical engineering to them by BIT. I would like to re-emphasise that the
mechanical engineering degree collaborative programme will not only have all
the courses essential for a mechanical engineering degree, but will also
include many other courses to suit railway specific requirements, so that
we have mechanical engineers trained
especially as railway rolling stock engineers.
This collaborative programme will not only be beneficial for the
training of SCAs, but I am sure it will have useful impact on the course structure that the BIT have for their own
campus students. I think, they will benefit from this industry-educational
institution collaboration. Here I refer to Indian Railways as an industry. And
with this formalised interaction with the Railways, the BIT courses will be
more in line with the changing needs and requirements of the industry.
Until now, the SCAs had to appear separately in the internal
examinations of IRIMEE, as well as the external examinations by Engineering
Council (London) or by the Institution of Engineers (India). The IRIMEE's
internal examinations did not count towards acquiring engineering degree. But
now with this collaborative degree programme, there will be only one set of
examinations like at any other engineering college or institute. That is, on
successful completion of their 4-year training programme at IRIMEE, the trainee SCAs will be awarded a mechanical
engineering degree by BIT, which is a deemed university under UGC Act. The mid
semester and other tests during each of the eight semesters will be conducted
as per BIT regulations at IRIMEE. The end semester examinations will be held
together with other students of BIT.
We are grateful to the vice-chancellor of BIT for agreeing to provide
faculty assistance to IRIMEE on a long term basis under this collaborative programme. The BIT have
kindly agreed to provide us all the help that is necessary for ensuring good
academic inputs on a continuing basis. Most of you are aware that BIT is fully
competent in this regard, as they cover the whole spectrum of engineering
education- covering undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes.
Further, under this programme, our faculty will get opportunities for attending training programmes and other
courses on advanced topics at BIT. This will help them in periodically updating
their knowledge and competence.
For successful execution of this programme, we will have to make a lot
of changes and adjustments at IRIMEE, and I am sure with the co-operation of
all my colleagues here, and with the help and support from BIT, we shall surely
be successful. We are grateful to the BIT Vice-chancellor, Dr. Mukherjee, Prof.
Kekre, Prof. A.P.Singh and Prof. Sahai, for all the help that they have been
extending to us. They have patiently gone through and usually agreed to changes
sought by us. And so far, we have been seeking changes quite frequently. I am
grateful to them for accommodating us all along.
And all this would not have become possible without the support and
help of the Board. We are especially grateful to the Member Mechanical, Sri
Ashok Kumar, who has given full support to this programme. And the Management
Services directorate of the Board under Mr. Pant, and Mr. Niraj Kumar, have done a lot to make this collaborative
programme a reality.
And now coming to the next item, today we have the probationers of the
Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers - 1996 batch who are completing
their 11/2 years of probationary training. This is the
second batch of probationers who are passing out on completion of their
training here. IRIMEE, Jamalpur became the headquarters of IRSME probationers
in 1997.
The
first batch had joined here in 1997. Before that, the probationers had their
headquarters at Kharagpur, although their training was controlled by the
Director from here. In the year 1997, their headquarters were shifted to
Jamalpur. Last year we had the first batch which passed out on completion of
their training here. At that time last year, we had taken feedback from the probationers in a formal
feedback session, with a view to find out
shortcomings in our training programmes and to suggest changes so that
the training could be more effective and more useful to the Railways. We did
implement the changes, whatever were considered necessary. And I am happy to
note that the feed-back we have got
from this batch (passing out today) is that they have appreciated these
changes, although they have not undergone training fully as per the revised
programme. They find that the changes have proved useful; their training is
more directed. We had introduced modular training -separate under various heads
like diesel-locos. That is, the entire training on diesel locos – whether at
the Institute or in the field, was guided and reviewed by the concerned faculty
members here. Earlier these were
planned independently- they attended courses conducted here and also, they used
to go to field units. And really we were reviewing the entire training only at
the end (of the complete training). But now we are having periodic reviews
after each phase of training.
Based
on the feedback that we have received now, we will continue to make suitable
changes, and it shall be our endeavour to continuously work for
improvements. I wish the passing out
batch all success in their career.
I think it is very appropriate that the IRIMEE's Advisory Committee
meeting has been scheduled today to coincide with the passing out of the
probationers. The committee members can interact with the probationers to get
first hand feedback on the training. I
am grateful to our Addl. Member, Sri Dhasarathy, for being kind enough to hold
this meeting here today, and also for agreeing to be the chief guest in today’s
function. I also express our gratitude
to other members of the advisory committee who have taken so much of trouble to come to Jamalpur. In particular,
I thank the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Eastern Railway – Sri Garg, for making
all the arrangements for travel and
stay of the members. Once again I thank you all.