National Academy of Indian Railways told to hand over assets to Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya

Curtains on the decades-old legacy of an apex training institute in Vadodara, say railway officers

The Ministry of Railways has directed the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara, to hand over all its assets to Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), a Central university envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Railway Board on Monday said that keeping in view the significant progress made by GSV and to enable proper coordination and support from NAIR and other Central Training Institutes, it had been decided that all infrastructural facilities on the campus, including classrooms, faculty offices, laboratories, hostels, guest houses, auditoriums, security, sports facilities etc, would be placed with GSV.

NAIR was told that in case it wanted to conduct any approved training programme, necessary permission should be obtained from the Vice-Chancellor of GSV. All future annual training calendar of NAIR and CTIs should be planned in consultation with GSV as the latter would have preference over the use of the facilities.

Many serving and retired railway officers lament that it is curtains on the rich legacy of the Indian Railway’s decades-old apex training facility in Vadodara. Established in 1952, NAIR, erstwhile Railway Staff College, operates from the Pratap Vilas Palace in Vadodara over a 43.5-acre campus. It imparts foundation and induction training programmes for Group-A officers who qualify the Civil Services Examination and opt for a career in the railways. NAIR also provides foundation programme for Group-B officers and conducts refresher, skill upgradation and other mid-career training programmes for railway officers. 

Time-tested protocols 

NAIR is the training academy for railway officers similar to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for IAS officers and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy for IPS officers. “Depriving NAIR of its specialised infrastructure built over the years might impact the time-tested training protocols designed for railway officers. By taking over the assets of the premier training academy, the authorities concerned lost the opportunity of building from scratch a new world-class campus for GSV. Since it was inspired by the Prime Minister himself, there couldn’t have been any constraint of funds and resources and an institute equipped with modern laboratories and test rigs could have been built instead of this shortcut of sacrificing the Railway Staff College,” said Shubranshu, former General Manager of Rail Wheel Plant, Bela.

He said probationary Group-A officers were now being sent to the Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management (IRITM), Lucknow, for their initial training. The railways have decided to deploy faculty from CTIs to GSV for teaching purposes. “Senior railway officers may have competency to teach on specialised subjects based on their experience. But they cannot be considered as qualified teaching faculty of GSV as there are certain eligibility criteria set by the University Grants Commission and the All India Council of Technical Education,” said Mr. Shubranshu, who was the architect of Train18, the first rake of Vande Bharat. 

Professional enrichment 

Former Director-General of the Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secunderabad, S.K. Goel said the dismantling of NAIR could sabotage the entire system of imparting administrative training to railway officers. “NAIR has played a key role in professionally enriching railway officers from their entry into service till superannuation. I have undergone training at the academy on several occasions in my career spanning over 38 years to learn latest advancements in technology, management and global trends in rail transportation,” he said.

GSV, a vision of Mr. Modi, is India’s first university focussed on transport-related education, multi-disciplinary research and training. The Central university under the Ministry of Railways was established to create a resource pool of best-in-class professionals for the railway transportation sector, GSV says on its website.

Another senior railway officer Sanjay Chauhan, formerly Director-General, NAIR, said training of officers would continue in IRITM facility in Lucknow. “The training location has shifted from Vadodara to Lucknow. But the facilities in IRITM are not sufficient…they may have to build another NAIR there,” he said.