In a first, India is set to get its first university for rail and transport. The Railway Ministry's transformative initiative, National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) is all set to come up in Vadodara, Gujarat. The initiative was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

The innovative idea inspired by PM Modi will herald the transformation of rail and transport sector towards new India. The government is working towards completing all approvals by April 2018 so that the first academic session can commence in July 2018.

The Ministry of Railways will create a not-for-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 that will manage the proposed university. It will provide financial and infrastructural support to the university, and appoint Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor of the university. 

The ministry will be funding the university which is expected to have 3,000 full-time students. The university will come up at the existing land and infrastructure at National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) at Vadodara that will be modified and modernized for the purpose.

The university will create a resource pool of skilled manpower and leverage state-of-the-art technology to provide better safety, speed and service in Indian Railways. It plans to use latest pedagogy and technology applications (satellite-based tracking, Radio Frequency Identification and Artificial Intelligence) to improve on-the-job performance and productivity. 

The university will collaborate with the Railways to ensure that the stakeholders have access to its facilities, which will work as 'live labs' so that they will be able to work on solving real-life problems. It will have 'Centres of Excellence' showcasing high-end, niche technology like High-Speed Train.