Inland, coastal maritime technology centre to be set up at IIT Kharagpur

A state-of-the-art Centre for Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology (CICMT) is being set up at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) under the flagship Sagarmala programme of the Ministry of Shipping (MoS). This centre will be set up at a cost of Rs 69.20 crore.

The IIT-Kharagpur statement said, "The Centre will provide applied research and development, as also real-world solutions for the inland and coastal waterways sector, as also coastal waterways transportation. It would also provide tools and technological inputs to double the share in intermodal transport for domestic waterways freight carrying capacity."

The project is of strategic long-term interests for the port and maritime sector of India. It is being fully funded under unique and innovative projects under Sagarmala.

PP Chakrabarti, Director of IIT KGP, said, "IIT Kharagpur is delighted to be able to set up the Centre for Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology. This builds on the unique strength of IIT Kharagpur's Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture department supported by all the other engineering and science departments."

"We hope to be able to work on deep areas of technology development and indigenous technologies development as well as in areas related to energy efficiency and use of automation and AI (artificial intelligence) in these areas," he added.