Hyderabad: The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) on Thursday announced that the institute has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Govt. of India to establish a ‘Transportation Research and Innovation Hub (TRI HUB), a Centre of Excellence at IIT Hyderabad to work on contemporary and cutting-edge technologies for National Highways in India.
Prof Kiran Kuchi, Dean (R&D), IITH, while signing the MoU, has noted, “This is one of the pioneering initiatives of NHAI to support state-of-the-art research in transportation through a Centre of Excellence.”
Cheering the initiative with IITH, Ajay Sabharwall, GM(Tech), NHAI-New Delhi, and Krishna Prasad, DGM & RO, NHAI-Hyderabad, said, “We are confident in demonstrating new technologies in pavements and bridge infrastructure in partnership with IITH.”
Expressing delight on occasion, Prof BS Murty, Director, IITH, has opined, “The new HUB is possibly the first of its kind in an IIT system, will complement the recently inaugurated test bed for the ‘Technology Innovation Hub for Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems (TiHAN)’ at the Institute in demonstrating innovative technologies. In addition, it is going to bring a number of innovative technologies in the field of transportation.”
Briefing about the hub, Prof Sireesh Saride, Professor of Civil Engineering and Chair, TRI HUB, said, “We are resolute in achieving the project deliverables in time and demonstrating new technologies and methodologies to build smart and sustainable National Highways. The new methodologies, including geosynthetics, reclaimed materials, glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), rebars for bridges and pavements, and retrofitting strategies for aging bridges, among other solutions, are going to provide long-lasting and sustainable highway infrastructure for smart Indian Highways.”
As part of this HUB, Prof Suriya Prakash S, Prof Umashankar B, Prof Mahendra Kumar Madhavan, Dr Munwar Basha, and Dr Anil Agarwal, along with Prof Sireesh S, will work on 10 different innovative projects to deliver the objectives.
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