Kerala is known for its human resources and there are good institutes and research centres doing innovative and genuine research works in the areas of transportation engineering. But unfortunately our State has failed to tap those expertises for the betterment of the road network for the common good of the society. Most of the findings could not be transferred to the field and still remain on papers. Moreover, those organizations engaged in construction and maintenance of roads face lot of practical problems and they would have solved them better, if proper integration existed between academics and such implementing agencies. On the other hand, those in academics are unaware of ground problems. Realizing this missing link, the Government of Kerala has taken a bold initiative and allocated Rupees Hundred lakhs (Rs. 100/- lakhs) to the College of Engineering Trivandrum in the present budget for setting up Transport Research Centre (TRC). The main objective of this centre is to ensure better roads and road network for the State. This centre has 12 faculty members having expertise in various areas of transportation. It offers a two year M.Tech. course in Traffic and Transportation Engineering with an intake of 18 students. The centre has already taken up various research projects funded by National as well as State agencies.
In this context, the Government of Kerala has taken initiative to set up a centre for excellence for Transportation Engineering Research at Transportation Engineering Division, Dept. of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Trivandrum in March 2012, with the intention of contributing its academic and research output to offer ‘better roads for the public of Kerala’. It aspires at joining hand in hand with the practicing engineers for planning, designing, and building better roads and managing it efficiently throughout the service life. Since 2012, in the budget an amount of Rs 1, 00, 00,000/- (Rupees Hundred lakhs only) has been allocated every year.
TRC emphasizes on applied research and technology transfer to further knowledge in the field of transportation and to solve transportation problems encountered by transportation sector. In order to conduct high quality research in the field of transportation, TRC will provide an extensive array of labs, equipment and reference materials.
Major activity of TRC are:
- To carry out high quality research in the following areas
• Pavement engineering
• Traffic and transportation engineering
• Transportation planning and economics - To conduct training programs or workshops/symposium to disseminate the knowledge to other organizations
- Provide training for faculty and students to identify recent trends and advancement in the relevant field.
- To modernize the labs and purchase of codes and other reference materials
Links
List of Research Projects done by TRC
Download Guidelines for submission of project proposal under TRC.
Download format for project proposal under TRC – PDF format
Download format for project proposal under TRC – Word format