Transport ministry looks for R&D tie-ups on safety, emission norms
NEW DELHI: The road transport and highways ministry will partner with technical institutes for expanding research and development (R&D) projects on road safety and new emission norms as part of the human resource development (HRD) ministry’s Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY).
The UAY was launched in 2016 to promote industry-specific, need-based research to keep up the competitiveness of the Indian industry in the global market. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) have been encouraged to work under the UAY with the industry to identify areas where innovation is required and come up with solutions that could be brought up to the commercialization level.
“Under the UAY scheme, the HRD ministry had proposed the need to focus on R&D which will be adopted by the industry. They had sent us a concept note then shortlisting various technical institutes. We wrote to them last week narrowing on three projects which we will work on for the first time,” said road transport and highways ministry additional secretary Leena Nandan.
The government proposes to invest ₹250 crore annually under the UAY on projects technical institutes propose provided the industry and the concerned ministry each contribute 25% of the cost involved.
The transport ministry has narrowed on three projects worth ₹513.86 lakh with its contribution of ₹128.465 lakh. It has tied up with TVS Motor Company and Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IIS) for the first project to work on technologies for Bharat Stage VI emission compliant engines for twowheelers at an estimated cost of ₹198.64 lakh.
The ministry is also expanding its research on improving driver safety and direct visibility and will be partnering with the IIS worth for the project worth ₹132.86 lakh with INEDA systems as the industry partner.
For the third project, the transport ministry will work on low-cost design and manufacture of indigenous automotive radar for road safety and monitoring driving behaviour with IIT, Hyderabad.
Volvo cars would be as the industrial partner for the project that would cost ₹182.36 lakh.
“To carry out R&D and take it to the implementation level for bringing in features in motorized road vehicles and also to ensure that the emission is improved, the tie-up with technical institutes by these ministries is an excellent idea,’’ said Sudhir Badami, a transportation expert at IITBombay.
“At the same time, we also need to attend to pedestrians and cyclists, which has been laid down in the national urban transport policy. It cannot be researched by industry partners as they have a vested interest in increasing the sale of their vehicles.”