Facing shortage of Engineers, DMRC Asks Institute for Metro Tech course

Beleaguered by an acute shortage of trained engineers for its second phase of operations, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has approached Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, for a solution.

In a letter written to the director of the institute, DMRC managing director E Sredharan has proposed that the institute should start a one year postgraduate course in Metro Technology which would cover all aspects of planning and construction of a metro rail network.

And IIT’s response has been positive. Discussions are on between the two organizations and the PG programme could be on track by this year (2008) itself. The first batch could be joining the course as early as this July. Modalities like the course curriculum and raining are being worked out.

No Indian university offers a specialized course in metro operations because of which Delhi Metro has been facing problems in getting trained manpower. For Phase I, the corporation had sent out a core group of engineers to other countries. Members of this team have been training others at the training school set up at the Shastri Park depot. The corporation has also been relying on expatriates for training and has several consultants working for it.

Now with the construction work for Phase II gathering pace, the metro network in the Delhi is going to grow to almost thrice its present size. And, obviously, a lot of trained manpowere will be required. According to estimates, DMRC has about 1,500 engineers on its rolls for the 65.1 km long Metro operations in the city. Another 2,000 engineers will be recruited for Phase II, which will cover another 128 km.

Also, now with other cities, like Chennai, Pune, Kochi, Hyderabad and Kolkata also planning metros of their own, the requirement for a trained workforce will be increase.

"For Delhi Metro, the demand for trained engineers is immediate. The Metro technology being used is advanced and aspects of signaling, route designing, automatic fare collection, land acquisition proceedings and rolling stock requirements are not being taught as part of normal engineering courses. For Phase II, we are looking at expanding our training school or opening another one. Also, final discussions are going on with IIT-Delhi to start a PG Diploma in Metro Engineering," said Anuj Dayal, DMRC’s chief spokesperson.

The PG course will be open to engineering graduates from civil, electrical, signaling and telecom fields. DMRC plans to recruit the engineers first and then nominate them for the Metro Technology course. “We want to depute about 15 civil, 10 electrical and four signaling and telecom engineers for the course, who will be taken in at the executive level and deputed for the course,” Dayal added.

The corporation has also sent letters to metros in other cities informing them about the course and also asking them to nominate engineers for it. The PG programme, with a batch size of 30 students, will have course components like planning for a metro, route alignment, land acquisition procedures, system selection, funding patterns, planning for stations, depots, tunneling, signaling, parking, property development, integration with other modes, safety at work site, fare system and ticketing and train operations.

Source: Times of India