Branch of 132-year-old IRIMEE institute of Jamalpur, Bihar to open in Lucknow

AGRA: Amid rumors that the Indian Railways is planning to relocate the 132-year-old Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (IRIMEE) from Jamalpur in Bihar to the outskirts of Lucknow, the director of the institute announced that only a new branch of the iconic institute will be opened in the state capital as part of an effort to build a centralised institute to train railway officers on probation.
According to the Railways, Rs 74.5 crore has already been sanctioned for the project, construction for which is expected to start after the lockdown. However, some railway officials raised objection to the project, claiming Railways is on a drive to cut expenditure, as Railways’ operating ratio is currently a high Rs 98.41 for every Rs 100 earned. The Rail Budget for 2020 stated that a year ago, the operating ratio was 98.30 and has been deteriorating rapidly since 2015-16, when it was 90.5%.
Speaking to TOI, S K Yagnik, director of IRIMEE, Jamalpur, said, “The proposal for the new branch was mooted in 2014, as was the sanctioning of funds, both before I became director. Shutting down the Jamalpur institute is mere speculation. It will continue to work in coming years, we are just expanding to Lucknow, as the location has more connectivity and there is already another railway institute —Indian Railways Institute of Transport Management (IRITM).”
According to letters exchanged between L C Trivedi, general manager of North Eastern Railway (NER) and S K Yagnik of IRIMEE, the spot for the new IRIMEE branch will be located on a 92,660 sqm plot at Mohibullapur, along Sitapur road on the outskirts of Lucknow. The campus will be larger than the Jamalpur one, which is spread across 86,240 sqm.
Lokesh Singh, who was the senior divisional mechanical engineer of NER in 2014, and had been given the task of preparing a proposal for site selection, said, “Since Jamalpur was in a remote area with poor connectivity, we decided to look for a better place for the institute, where there was larger scope for probationary officers to learn and be active. Also, Uttar Pradesh has three railway zones — Northern, North Central and North Eastern railways — which will benefit from the location.”