Japan's Rs. 30 Crore Multi Mode Transportation Project Handed to IIT-H

With the aim of improving relations with the country Japan, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad will be working on a Rs 30 crore project based on multi-mode transportation.

According to IIT-H Director Prof U B Desai, the institute has developed a special relationship with Japan. The duration of this project will befive-yearsand the aim of the project is to reduce carbon footprint.

Stating similarities between the relation of IIT- Kanpur with United States and that of IIT- Hyderabad with Japan, Desai terms the relationship as one of a kind.

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According to the officials of the institute, this project will be a second SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development) project on 'Smart Cities for Emerging Countries based on Sensing, Network, and Big Data Analysis of Multimodal Regional Transportation System'.

Mr. Desai also said that since the establishment of the college in 2008, IIT- Hyderabad has been a part of many programmes along with Japan whether it be research and development collaborations or friendship programmes or programmes related to infrastructure. The college has at least one visitor from Japan in the campus every week and has maintained the relationship in such a manner that about 25 to 30 faculty from the college travel to Japan and the same number of faculty travel from Japan to the college every year.

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The college has R&D collaboration with Japan in the following areas:

• Sustainable development
• Smart cities
• Digital fabrication
• Energy and environment
• Nanotechnologies
• Design and manufacturing

Apart from this, more than 40 graduates from IITH are pursuing their higher studies from Japan which have been funded by means of scholarship and fellowship by universities there and the institute has MoUs with more than a dozen Japanese universities.

The college also has a collaboration with Japan in terms of culture. A coffee shop named 'Shiru Cafe' has been established by Japan at IITH where students and faculty of IITH can have free coffee every day. The coffee shop is run by students from Japan.