The technology to start and run Metro services may soon become a specialised course in Indian universities. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has approved the plan to allow universities to formulate BTech courses in Metro engineering, sources said. The course students a four-year engineering degree and is aimed at training engineers to fuel the development in the transport system across the country.

“The idea actually came from the Delhi Metro administration. It had written to the minister of human resource development, asking him to allow universities to start a course that would provide personnel trained in the field of Metro rail transport systems,” said a senior AICTE official who did not want to be named.

Currently, IIT Delhi and IIT Chennai conduct training programmes in Metro engineering. “The Metro rail system has seen huge success in foreign countries as well as in our own. It is the pride of Delhi. Also, it is a field that will see tremendous growth in the coming years as more and more cities are planning their Metro lines. We think it’s important that specialised engineers are trained for this,” the official added.

While the Delhi Metro rail started in 2002, the first phase of Bengaluru Metro started a month back.

Since the Metro has various specialisations in terms of technical expertise, the course is expected to give students an option of choosing for either electrical, mechanical or civil engineering for Metro in the last year. The course is expected to start in 2013 and the first batch of students will pass out in 2017.

Metro engineering is the 274th B.Tech course to be approved by the AICTE. The body has been favouring specialised courses such as petrochemical engineering in the last few years.

Source: HT