UK experts to support India to boost rural roads

A BRITISH university experts will work with the Indian government to ensure good roads in the rural areas of the south Asian country.

University of Birmingham civil engineering experts will work with the country’s ministry of rural development (MoRD) to create a hi-tech monitoring system that will allow transport chiefs to respond to damage and deterioration on the country’s rural roads.

Farmers and people living in rural communities will benefit from the Birmingham experts working with their Indian partners, as they evaluate technologies and standards for the construction and maintenance of rural roads.

The British engineers will provide MoRD with mechanisms that allow automated analysis of rural road condition.

A team of university experts led by Dr Michael Burrow and Dr Gurmel Ghataora will work with one of MoRD’s rural connectivity and training centres to set up a global centre of excellence in rural roads.

The initiative will bring together leading research groups and practitioners, initially from India and the UK, with the aim of developing a global reach.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood signed a range of memorandum of understanding (MoU) with MoRD at a special signing ceremony in Delhi.

The agreement forms a key part of the university’s strategic vision to continue building meaningful education and research partnerships in India.

Professor Sir David said: “The University of Birmingham is committed to forging meaningful education and research partnerships in India. We are a global ‘civic’ university, and proud that our civil engineering experts are working with partners in India to contribute to improving the well-being of its citizens.”

The agreement sees the University of Birmingham and MoRD working together on promoting research, building traffic capacity and redefining standards of practice in the construction and maintenance of rural roads.

MoRD will also identify training needs among those working on rural roads in India, so that experts from the university can provide professional development programmes to address these needs.