The National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara formerly Railway Staff College and historically the Pratap Vilas Palace, is a Centralised
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
,
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
and
medical
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
training institute for
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
,
Engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
and
Medical
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
Officers of
Indian Railway Personnel Service
The Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) is a Prestigious Group 'A' Central Civil Service cadre of the Government of India. The central civil servants of this service are responsible for managing the Human Resources of the Indian Railways and we ...
,
Indian Railway Stores Service
The Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) is one of the Group A central engineering services of the Government of India. The officers of this service are procurement and logistics specialists, contract managers on the Indian Railways, providers of ...
and
Indian Railway Medical Services
The Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS) is an organized central Group A civil service of the Government of India under Ministry of Railways consisting of doctors recruited by the Union Public Service Commission's(UPSC) Combined Medical Services E ...
cadre headed by a Director General and staffed by a faculty of experienced Railway Managers and Experts. Starting with the initial training of Officers Trainees inducted as Central
Civil Services
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
,
Engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
and
Medical
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
professionals that form the backbone of
Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
, the Academy also conducts, mid-service mandatory or theme based ''in service'' Management Courses for all Officers of IR and courses for Officers of other Group A Central Services, Public Sector and Foreign Railways. The Academy is housed in the sprawling 55 acres campus of the Pratap Vilas Palace at Lalbaug,
Vadodara
Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capita ...
.
History
![Sir William Acworth](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Sir_William_Acworth.jpg)
The Indian Railway Committee was constituted in 1920, under the chairmanship of Sir
William Mitchell Acworth, with 10 members including 3 Indians viz.
V. S. Srinivasa Sastri (Elected Member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council), Purshottam Das Thakurdas (representing Indian Commercial Interests) and Sir
Rajendra Nath Mookerjee
Sir Rajendra Nath Mookerjee (or Rajen Mookerjee; 23 June 1854 – 15 May 1936) was a pioneering Bengali Indian industrialist.Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), (1976/1998), ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dict ...
. The committee recommended setting up a Railway Staff College which came up at Dehradun but soon closed down. Later the Indian Military Academy IMA came up on the same campus.
![A print of the Gaekwar of Baroda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/A_print_of_the_Gaekwar_of_Baroda.jpg)
The Railway Staff College was reestablished in 1952 at Pratap Vilas Palace
Vadodara
Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capita ...
built by
Maharaja Sayaji Rao for his eldest son
Fatehsingh Rao. The Palace is adorned by exquisite carvings. Its construction was started on 15 February 1908 in the year when the last ruler of
Baroda State,
Pratapsingh Rao was born and his father Fatehsingh Rao died. Named after
Pratapsingh Rao, the palace was designed in the renaissance style by
Charles F. Stevens, son of
F.W. Stevens, the British architect who designed the
Victoria Terminus in Mumbai. The palace complex is built in 55 acres (220,000 m
2) of well laid out gardens and wooded land enlivened by the calls of peacocks and migratory birds and adorned by exquisite carvings of creepers, flowers, leaves, birds and animals and noted for its architectural grandeur highlighted with columns and arches. The palace, completed in 1914, also known as Lalbaugh Palace or Prince's Palace, was leased by the then Bombay Government on 31 January 1949 and given to the Railways for their use who subsequently purchased the property on 6 January 1964 for Rs 24,38,271.
Courses
Indian Railways employs over 1.25 million personnel including 15,000 group ‘A’ and group ‘B’ officers. The Academy is the apex institution for Management Training of all Railway Officers and Centralised & Professional Training for Officers of Accounts, Personnel, Stores and Medical departments including the centralized training of newly recruited
IRAS
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 January 1983, its mission lasted ten mo ...
,
IRPS,
IRSS and
IRMS Trainee officers.
Nearly 100 courses for about 3800 officer trainees are planned in 2016. 120 courses were conducted in 2015.
Professional Training of all officers including centralized training of the Officer Trainees of Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Signal & Telecom Engineering, Traffic Transportation & Commercial Departments and the Railway Protection Force of Indian Railways is conducted at Seven other Centralised Training Institutes (CTIs) viz,
* IRICEN-
Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering,
Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
* IRISET-
Indian Railways Institute of Signal and Telecommunications Engineering,
Secunderabad
Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...
* IRIMEE-
,
Jamalpur
* IRIEEN-
Indian Railways Institute of Electrical Engineering,
Nasik
* IRITM-
Indian Railways Institute of Transportation Management,
Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...
*
Jagjivan Ram Railway Protection Force Academy Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...
*
Centralized Training Academy For Railway Accounts
Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
Secunderabad
Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...
.
The training of non-gazetted staff is conducted at 55 Main Training Centers and 222 Other Training Centers (i.e., Area Training Centers, Basic Training Centers, Divisional Training Centers, Multi Disciplinary Training Centers etc.
The Academy
![Palace for web](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Palace_for_web.jpg)
Shri S.P.S Chauhan is the current Director General of the Academy. The faculty comprises 24 experts drawn from various disciplines i.e., Finance, HR, Management, Engineering, Law, Safety, Security, Medicine, Rajbhasha etc.
Faculty of the Academy- See Academy website
The Academy along with all 7 other CTIs function under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board).
Training programmes
Centralized Training for IRAS, IRSS, IRPS & IRMS
The Academy is the ‘Centralised Training Institute’, for Officer Trainees assigned to ‘
Indian Railway Accounts Service
The Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS; ''Bharatiya Rail Lekha Seva'') is one of the Group A Central Civil Service of the Government of India. The civil servants under this Service are responsible for the Accounts and Finance Management of ...
’,
Indian Railway Personnel Service
The Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) is a Prestigious Group 'A' Central Civil Service cadre of the Government of India. The central civil servants of this service are responsible for managing the Human Resources of the Indian Railways and we ...
’, ‘
Indian Railway Stores Service
The Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) is one of the Group A central engineering services of the Government of India. The officers of this service are procurement and logistics specialists, contract managers on the Indian Railways, providers of ...
’ and Indian Railway Medical Service’ by
UPSC. Training includes class room inputs, field training and visits to other CTIs. Officer Trainees of
IRAS
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 January 1983, its mission lasted ten mo ...
also attend short term Professional modules at
National Academy of Audit and Accounts,
Shimla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...
, National Institute of Financial Management,
Faridabad
Faridabad is the most populous city in the Indian state of Haryana and a part of Delhi National Capital Region. It is one of the major satellite cities around Delhi and is located 284 kilometres south of the state capital Chandigarh. The ri ...
,
National Academy of Direct Taxes
The National Academy of Direct Taxes is the apex civil service training institution of the Indian Revenue Service and the Income Tax Department of the Government of India. Over the years, it has enhanced and embellished national interest by mou ...
Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
and Centralized Training Academy For Railway Accounts (C-TARA)
Secunderabad
Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...
, for discipline specific modules.
Foundation & Induction Programmes for Group A and B Officers
It is a combined programme for Officer Trainees of nine Organized Central Group A Civil & Engineering Services that are responsible for managing Indian Railways and the foundation and induction courses for them. In the case of Officer Trainees of the Indian Railway Medical Service (IRMS), the Organised Central Group A Medical Service, which manages the health services on the Indian Railways network, shorter Foundation and Induction programmes are conducted separately. In order to provide an overview of the railways to recently promoted Group 'B' officers of all departments, the Railways Foundation Programmes are offered. For officers of the Stores, Accounts, and Personnel departments, induction programmes are held as part of their induction process. During the induction courses, Group B officers from other departments attend induction courses held at their respective CTIs.
Mid Service Training
Offered in two formats:
# General inputs of interest to all Managers at various stages in their career.
# Function or subject specific inputs only to relevant set of Managers.
Special Courses
Theme based short term courses on various topics such as
Right to Information Act
The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, a ...
, Discipline & Appeal Rules, Vigilance,
Labour Laws
Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...
, Railway Safety, Hospital Management,
Information Technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
are conducted throughout the year.
BIMSTEC Training Program
An International Programme on ‘Costing & Pricing of Rail Transport Services’ is conducted every year for Executives of Railways and other Transport sectors from
BIMSTEC
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic pro ...
&
Mekong-Ganga Cooperation and allied countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam and India).
Seminars/Workshops
Seminars/Workshops conducted in the past year
Interactive Workshops on ''Project Management through Alternate Financing'', ''Recruitment procedures for RRB Chairpersons'', ''Good Governance Code for Station Managers''
Seminars on ''Enhancing Productivity on IR through IT Applications'', ''Make in India for the World – Realizing export potential of Railway Products & services'', and ‘''Startups''’
Auditorium
Seminars, conferences, mock drill sessions, films, cultural functions etc. are organized regularly in the 250 seat auditorium known as ‘Sardar Patel Sabhagriha’.
Library
The library at has about 53,000 titles on transport, economics, rail transport, psychology, management, law, finance, engineering, computer science, literature and more than 100 journals & government publications are subscribed including 5 e-Journals. The database of the library is available at NIC's (
National Informatics Centre
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an Indian government department under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The NIC provides infrastructure, IT Consultancy, IT Services including but not limited to architecti ...
) e-Granthalaya portal in a cluster with four other CTIs’ (
IRICEN
Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering (IRICEN), Pune is the training institute for the Civil engineers of the Indian Railways. The institute had a modest start in 1959 as the ''Permanent Way Training School'' for training entry level Ci ...
,
IRISET,
IRIEEN
The Indian Railways Institute of Electrical Engineering (IRIEEN), Nashik, was set up by Indian Railways at Nashik in Maharashtra for imparting training to newly appointed officers of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers, recruite ...
, IRITM and
RDSO
The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) is an ISO 9001 research and development organisation under the Ministry of Railways of government of India, which functions as a technical adviser and consultant to the Railway Board, the Zonal ...
. A knowledge portal has been built to aggregate most of the available knowledge on Indian Railways by linking websites, documents etc.
The website of the Academ
nair.indianrailways.gov.inhosts important information like tenders, information for Guest officers, training schedule
2016- Training Calendar of NAIR
Model Room
The Academy has a well equipped model room displaying various types of train operating and signaling systems in use on Indian Railways. Trainee Officers get a feel of practical train operations by running working models of trains under a simulated hands-on environment. Model room has working models of
route relay interlocking
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...
, auxiliary warning system, automatic block signaling, train activated warning at level crossings, block proving by axle counters, 4 aspects automatic signal & data Logger etc. Souvenirs from the
National Rail Museum New Delhi
The National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, displays exhibits on the history of rail transport in India. The museum was inaugurated on 1 February 1977. The museum spans over an area of over 11 acres and the indoor gallery compris ...
are displayed and are also available for sale to trainees.
Periodicals
The Academy publishes a newsletter Rail Parisar (Rail Campus) and the bilingual Abhivyakti (Expression)
which carries technical and literary articles by Faculty and alumni.
Heritage
Mild weathering of the limestone facade of the century-old palace as a whole is evident but is severe in some locations. The interior has suffered from heavy use. Conservation efforts are being initiated. A heritage arcade with an indoor photo gallery has come up in the Palace Guard House at the main entrance. A renovated narrow gauge (2"6') passenger coach is on display next to the guard house.
A heritage walk is being planned for the citizens of Vadodara in the palace grounds in collaboration with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation.
Sports
Sports facilities includes badminton, tennis, squash basketball and volleyball courts, a swimming pool & sauna, a cricket and football ground, a gymnasium, a billiards and table tennis lounge, other indoor games and a small golfing green.
Mess
NAIR Officers Mess has one AC dining hall with a capacity of 200 and is managed by a committee of trainee officers and FMs on a "no profit, no loss" basis.
Hostels
The Academy has three hostels, with a capacity to accommodate about 200 officers in 170 air-conditioned rooms with rooms earmarked on ground floor for differently-abled officers.
Former Director Generals/Principals
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
Training institutes of Indian Railways
Tourist attractions in Vadodara
Universities and colleges in Vadodara
1888 establishments in India
Educational institutions established in 1888