BTech with rail engineering specialisation: ‘Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya believes in lifelong learning’

The National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI) became the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya in 2022. Focussed on transport and logistics, it will complete three years as a central university in August. Manoj Choudhary vice-chancellor, Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya talks to Careers360 about the uniqueness of the institution, industry partnerships, placements, new MTech courses, scholarships and more. Edited excerpts:

Q. What was the vision behind Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya?

The growth in the transportation and logistics sectors in the country required a coordinated and synergistic approach. Complementing the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (announced in 2021) and National Logistics Policy (announced in 2022), the parliament created Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya as a central university, through an Act in August 2022. The reason was to have a specialised university focusing on the entire transportation and logistics sector.

As we aspire to become a developed country by 2047, the transportation sector will play a significant role, including railways, roadways, aviation, ports and others. Further, logistics infrastructure and efficiency are extremely important. Such a critical national need demands a dedicated university to produce superior human resources for the sector.

We are a specialised sector-specific university. We focus on the entire transportation sector, including railways, aviation, shipping, highways, inland waterways, gas pipeline, and the entire logistics sector.

Q. As a one-of-a-kind university, what is the key issue it is solving?

Gati Shakti National Master Plan was announced in October 2021, to focus on technology enabled approach to project planning and monitoring for infrastructure projects and building synergies across various departments/ministries. Today, Indian Railways is the fourth-largest network in the world. We roughly carry around 700 crore passengers a year with roughly two crore passengers every day. We operate approximately 10,500 passenger trains and nearly 10,000 freight trains daily. We currently have 15,000 locomotives, 90,000 coaches, around 4 lakh wagons, roughly 1,40,000 km of track length to maintain and so forth. Therefore, Indian Railways is a big organisation that employs 12 lakh and requires technology-oriented people.

Similarly, India's aviation sector has rapidly expanded from 74 airports to more than 162 airports and is growing through the regional connectivity scheme, Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagarik (UDAAN). We will soon have 350 airports. As the number of airports grows and our airlines order more aeroplanes, we will require a large amount of technical manpower or aircraft maintenance engineers. We also need trained people to do airport operations and management. And we do not have any dedicated central institution for creating these trained professionals.

Similarly, our national highways are being built at the rate of roughly 35 km per day. Today, we have national highways of around 1,50,000 km. They require new technology and speed. Further, there is a big role of bridges and tunnels. Similarly in the maritime sector, India currently has around 12 major and 200 minor ports and India's biggest trans-shipment port has come up at Vizhinjam. Further, Vadhavan Port will come up as a Greenfield Mega Port.

This means that across all transportation sectors, there is rapid growth. To sustain this momentum, we require superior, talented, technical and specialised manpower. Logistics operations require a large number of warehouses to be maintained, including a lot of technology in terms of quantity, material, time and procurement. Hence, inventory management and demand forecasting have become important requirements.

In the defence sector, logistics play an important role. Wars are won or lost based on Logistics efficiency and readiness. Across all forms of transportation and logistics, we require new technology. Our manpower must be technology-enabled with the latest management practices. That’s where the role of GSV is extremely paramount.

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Q. What courses are offered and what is the admission process? Any more in the pipeline?

Currently, we have six BTech programmes, including civil, electrical, electronics, mechanical engineering, AI and aviation. Four of these programmes are with a specialisation in rail engineering.

In a typical BTech in civil engineering students are taught geotechnical, water resources engineering and then construction, materials, strength of materials and other topics. However, in the course at GSV, 15- 20% of the content is focused on transportation. For example, in BTech in rail engineering, students are taught introduction to railway systems, rail engineering, track technology, station design, cargo terminal design, high-speed rail infrastructure systems, bridge technology, tunnel technology and more. The same is the case in electronics and communication engineering where students are taught aspects of rail signaling systems, ETCS, CBTC, Kavach etc. It is India's only university that produces graduates specialised in rail engineering.

We also have a BTech in artificial intelligence and data science with specialisation in transportation and logistics. We also have a BTech in aviation engineering. All our programmes are related to the transportation and logistics sector. Further, we plan to start a programme in highway engineering.

We take admission for our BTech programmes through Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main score and Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JOSAA) counselling.

We also offer data-enabled management programmes, including an MBA in logistics and supply chain management and an MBA in port and shipping logistics.

Also, today 29 cities in India are building metros. Delhi is the first one to bring a successful metro model to India. The Metro Sector employs around 50,000 employees. We have the only MBA program in the country with specialization in Metro Rail management, in collaboration with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

We also provide up-skilling and re-skilling courses to a vast amount of people currently working in the field and run several executive training programmes for railways, aviation, logistics and defence personnel.

We shall introduce additional courses in the maritime sector and infrastructure asset management from next year. This August, we will launch MTech in bridge and tunnel engineering, road and highway engineering, aviation operations & management, and intelligent transport systems.

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Q. How many are currently enrolled?

While 194 students are graduating in May, 2025, we expect to have 1,055 regular students by August, 2025 (new academic session). This is in addition to thousands of officers who undergo executive training at GSV.

Q. The first batch graduated in December 2024. How have their job placements been?

This year, we have a 91.44% placement rate. In 2024, we had 80.73%. Our university believes in preparing students for life-long learning, while also enabling them to secure their first job. Therefore, our academic curriculum focuses on both the industry relevance and academic rigour.

Q. Gujarat has allotted the university space for expansion of the permanent campus. What is the progress on that front?

Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya is a Central University under the Ministry of Railways. The Ministry has enabled a 55-acre campus in Vadodara, Gujarat where the University is already functional. The University has excellent infrastructure, including air-conditioned hostels, classrooms and various facilities. There is new construction happening in the campus which will be completed by 2026. Additional hostel facilities are being built for 1,258 students. We are also building 24 modern classrooms, an auditorium with 524 seating capacity, 60 laboratories and more.

The Gujarat government has allocated 78 acres of additional land where the additional campus expansion shall take place. We plan to expand and to have around 5,000 students by 2028. The additional campus shall have new laboratories, more department buildings and residences for students, faculty and officers. We are in the process of building a master plan for the additional campus.

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Q. Do you provide scholarships?

The university has a big commitment to social inclusion and encouraging gender diversity. Out of universities' funds, we provide financial assistance to 20% of our meritorious and needy students. Further, ours is perhaps the only university in India, where 84 students are fully supported by Corporates through all four years of education, including all tuition and hostel fees. For instance: Airbus is supporting 40 of our students; Plasser India, 10; and Central Warehouse Corporation, 20. Siemens is supporting an uncapped number of female students who meet the merit and income criteria.

Q. Is your curriculum in line with National Education Policy?

It is to be noted that Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya was the First Central University to be set up, after the announcement of the National Education Policy 2020.

With a strong focus on multidisciplinary education, skilling, experiential learning and applied research, in our university, students go for internships in all four years, with a minimum of 13 to 14 weeks spent in the industry. Further, the entire eighth semester project can be done in industry. This is another 21 weeks. So, roughly, 35 weeks are possible to be spent in the industry by all BTech students which is more than 20% of the entire degree duration. That makes our students Industry-ready on day-1 after their graduation.

The National Education Policy 2020 highlights multidisciplinary courses, inculcating problem-solving mindset, working with industry in a harmonious manner and enabling a credit-based framework for their evaluation. All these components are a part of our curriculum.

Q. The university has formulated agreements with governments, universities and other bodies. How are these helping students?

The partnership with Airbus not only helps us in preparing the academic curriculum for BTech in aviation engineering but also sponsors 40 of our BTech students. Additionally, Airbus has set up a centre of excellence for sustainable fuel testing at the university. Industry is a key partner in our academic and research journey.

Further, under the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has made us the nodal agency for training 50,000 civil services officers on PM Gati Shakti and National Logistics Policy. Nokia is setting up a 5G-AI laboratory through Nokia Bell Labs, a pioneer in telecom. It has launched a certification programme in 5G technology for all our final-year electronics and communication engineering students. Last year, 43 students were certified by Nokia Bell Labs before they graduated in May.

Within the Indian universities, we already have collaborations with the Indian Maritime University, IIM Mumbai, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Gandhinagar and BITS Pilani. Currently, we already have collaborations with Monash Institute of Railway Technology, Melbourne, Australia, and Moscow State Transport University, Moscow, Russia.

Q. What are you doing to expand your research and innovation?

Despite being a new university, we have registered 10 patents through our "Innovation-led" vision. Our Faculty members have been recognized at the National Levels for new technology development. We wish to pursue the incubation and entrepreneurship activities vigorously at the university. We have recently set up a Center of Excellence in Bridge Research as well as in Infrastructure Project Management.

We plan to participate in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2028, once our two batches graduate and expect to be amongst the top universities.

We want to build our capacity in the sustainability and technology space. Further, we want to become India's best university in the logistics and transport sector and we are in the process of formulating big international collaborations.