Indian Railways eyes engineers from pvt sector

NEW DELHI: Hit by a high attrition rate, Indian Railways (IR) may soon poach engineers from the private sector and train them to work for projects across the country. IR needs manpower to support huge projects like dedicated rail freight corridor (DRFC) and high speed corridors for both freight and passenger services.

The Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering (IRICEN) will shortly train engineers from private companies. Also a new course would be introduced in the curriculum to impart training on rail management. According to officials, many foreign participants are also eager to be part of the programme.

Till now, the IRICEN has only been training engineers from IR and public sector units (PSUs). “IR is facing problem of increased attrition due to loss of qualified engineers both to the private sector as well as other public sector undertakings (PSUs), besides freeze on recruitment,” a senior Rail Bhawan official said.

“ With growth of projects, we need to have world class signalling and wagon facilities where a lot of manpower would be required. Also, we have two coach and wagon factories to be opened in Rae Bareilly and Chapra, where there is a need of manpower planning. It is not only the civil engineering section but proper planning is essential in signal and electrical engineering sections also,” he said.