Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw appointed as first Chancellor of Gati Shakti University

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India has been appointed as the Chancellor of Gati Shakti University, Vadodara (earlier known as National Rail & Transportation Institute (NRTI). He will be the first Chancellor of Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Vadodara, Gujarat.

Dr. Manoj Chowdhary, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur has been appointed as Vice Chancellor of Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Vadodara, Gujarat.

Their appointments were confirmed by Smt. Dropadi Murmu, President of India.

“It is necessary to create a university producing a talented, well-trained and focused cadre for handling the complexities of the transport sector. This is also an effort to enlarge PM GatiShakti National Master Plan,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw.

In August, Indian Parliament had passed the Gati Shakti Bill that seeks to convert the National Rail & Transportation Institute (NRTI) into the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, an autonomous central institution. The NRTI at Vadodara in Gujarat is currently functioning as a deemed-to-be institution.

The bill’s main objective was to convert the National Rail and Transportation University based in Vadodara into Gati Shakti Vishwa Vidyalaya, a Central University. It will be under the control of the Ministry of Railways. This bill was introduced under India’s National Education Policy (NEP). The Government of India (GOI) will repeal the University Grants Commission ( UGC) bill 2018, which is expected to bring life to the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI).

• Prevent brain drain and build critical capability by introducing transportation master’s and doctoral degrees, which no university has done.
• To make the country self-reliant in the transportation sector through skills and digitalising India in education.
• To challenge the world’s universities by providing high-quality teaching, research, and skill development in transportation, technology, and management.

The university is funded with a government flagship of Rs 100 lakh crore through the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.

Salient features of Gati Shakti University

• Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya or Gati Shakti University, is a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional institute established under the National Education Policy (NEP).
• The main objective of establishing the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya is to gather all the different departments into a single infrastructure where the transport sector, such as railways, roads, waterways, aviation, and ports, will coordinate to form a Gati Shakti mission platform.
• The Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya will be unique from other universities as it will incorporate transport courses, skill development, technology development, transport economics etc.
• Currently, the National Rail and Transportation University is based in Vadodara, but it is planned to establish these types of universities in every nation-state.