New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS): National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL), a CPSE under the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, joined hands with IIT, Patna with a view to introduce innovative technologies and find pragmatic solutions to the highways construction issues in challenging hilly and border areas.

While the latest MoU with IIT, Patna was signed on October 11, NHIDCL has signed Memorandum of Understandings with various institutes including CSIR-CRRI, IIT Roorkee, IIT Kanpur and NSDC during the current year 2022-23.

Earlier, partnership with IIT Bombay and IIT Guwahati were signed for sharing knowledge of innovative ideas and technologies in the field of Highway Engineering to upgrade skill and capacity of the core engineering professionals of NHIDCL who are working for construction of Highways, tunnels and other infrastructure in the very tough geographical areas of NE region, UT of Ladakh, UT of J&K and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Union Road, Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari in June 2022 had proposed setting up an Innovation Bank for new ideas, research findings and technologies to focus on 'Quality' in infrastructure development. He had said that new initiatives are expected from Indian Roads Congress (IRC), innovation should be the focus area for all Engineers. He had said IRC should develop a World-class state-of-art laboratory with the help of IITs and global institutions in the world.