IIT Roorkee receives Rs 108.99 cr grant from Ministry of Jal Shakti

Roorkee (Uttarakhand) [India], February 15 : Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Central Water Commission in Shram Shakti Bhawan of Ministry of Jal Shakti in New Delhi.
The MoA was signed for establishing the International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED) at IIT Roorkee.
This MoA signing event was chaired by Shri Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, RD&GR (DoWR, RD&GR) Ministry of Jal Shakti in the gracious presence of Prof U P Singh, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkee, Debashri Mukherjee, Special Secretary, DoWR, RD&GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Anand Mohan, Joint Secretary, DoWR, RD&GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman Central Water Commission, Sanjay Kumar Sibal, Member D&R.
The MoA was signed by Vijay Saran, Chief Engineer, DSO and Project Director, DRIP Phase II and III and Prof Akshay Dvivedi, Dean of Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy on behalf of CWC and IIT Roorkee, respectively.
According to the IIT Roorkee's official statement, this International Center of Excellence for Dams will be focusing on different safety and rehabilitation aspects of Dams, like Hydrological, Hydraulic, Structural, Geotechnical, seismic safety evaluation, and reservoir sedimentation and silt control.
"This Center is being developed to create manpower having sufficient background and expertise in the area of Dam Safety. It will also be developed to deal with the complete life cycle of the dam in the longer run. Under this MoA, the Ministry of Jal Shakti under DRIP Phase II and III has provided a Grant of Rs 108.99 crores to IIT Roorkee for establishing this Center of Excellence for dams," the statement added.
Speaking at the event, Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, DoWR, RD and GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti said that the Government of India has taken a number of policy initiatives for improving the ecosystem for dam safety management in the country. The establishment of the International Centre of Excellence for Dams at IIT Roorkee is one such important initiative in this direction."
He further stated that in the long run, with the active involvement of the academic and central institutions, domain expertise in dam safety management will be available within the country, which will give the right impetus to the Government of India Mission "Atmannirbhar Bharat" and will also provide a window of opportunity for disseminating knowledge and expertise in this area to many underdeveloped and developing nations in future.
Anand Mohan, Joint Secretary (RD and PP) on the said occasion said that the Government of India apart from establishing the two Centers of Excellence for dam safety, also developing the institutional capacity building of various central agencies and other premier academic institutions in the dam safety areas and the country in the coming years will become self-reliant in addressing the complex dam safety issues and challenges.
Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman CWC said that IIT Roorkee, through this Centre, shall also endeavour to embrace new technological advancement in other dam safety areas and help provide cutting-edge solutions to challenging problems faced by dam owners.
Vijai Saran, Chief Engineer, DSO and Project Director, CPMU, DRIP Phase II and Phase III, Central Water Commission, said, " To ensure the long-term sustainability of capacity building of our dam owners, the Government of India has taken many initiatives. One of the most important initiatives is the capacity building of our academic institutions to widen the horizon of dam safety knowledge in the country to provide technical support to our dam owners and the establishment of a Centre of Excellence is one of the activities under these endeavours."
He also stressed that this Centre would endeavour to promote a good blend of academic as well as industry knowledge, through the involvement of officials from CWC/dam-owning agencies in the various activities of the Centre, from time to time. This will help in the capacity development of officials in dam safety areas.
Prof. K.K. Pant, the Director of IIT Roorkee, said, "The formation of the International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED) will empower 'Make in India' in dam safety, plus augment advanced research and developing technologies and application products. We are eager to contribute to the mission of the Ministry of Jal Shakti."