NID to get jewellery, auto design and research centres

About Rs 10 cr will be spent on each of the research and design centres

After the central government announced a Railway Design Centre during the Union Budget 2012-13 for National Institute of Design (NID), the institute's Gandhinagar campus will now see a jewellery lifestyle and automobile research and design centre.

Announcing the centres while inaugurating the second phase of NID's Gandhinagar campus, Anand Sharma, union minister for textiles, commerce and industry said "The Centre would be giving two new centers for the Gandhinagar campus of NID. One will be jewellery research and design center and the other will be automobile research and design centre."

About Rs 10 crore will be spent on each of the research and design centres. Apart from this, an innovation recreation centre will also be set up at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

According to Pradyumna Vyas, director of NID, the centres will be set up as part of the 12th Five Year Plan. Moreover, Sharma also announced that NID "will soon be declared as an Institute of Excellence".

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the Ministry of Railways is setting up a special committee to work on developing a Railway Design Centre at NID's Ahmedabad campus. Moreover, recently NID made a proposal for designing 'pilot-like' apparel uniform for train drivers to the Ministry of Railways.

The proposal looks at enhancing apparel uniforms of train drivers in Indian Railways and may soon begin work on the same.

"The proposal was made prior to former Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi announcing a dedicated Railway Design Centre at NID's Ahmedabad campus. The idea is to develop apparel uniforms for train drivers on the lines of aircraft pilots. While we have made a proposal already, we hope to initiate further discussion by mid-April," Vyas added.