Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering

The Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (also known as IRIMEE), started in the year 1888 as Technical School. In the year 1927, the training of Mechanical Officers for Indian Railways commenced. Thus, it is the oldest of the five Centralised Training Institutes (CTIs) functioning for training of Officers of Indian Railways. IRIMEE is located at Jamalpur in the Munger district of Bihar, on the Patna-Bhagalpur rail route.

The Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Jamalpur is the Centralised Training Institute of Indian Railways, for the training of officers and supervisors of the Mechanical Engineering department.

Built in the first decade of 20th century, the original two-storey building of IRIMEE was destroyed in a major earthquake in 1921. It was redesigned and reconstructed in 1924. The building encloses several beautifully landscaped gardens in quadrangles.

Location

During the era of Mahabharata, Munger was the capital of Anga Pradesh ruled by Karna. Munger was also the seat of Mir Kasim, Nawab of Bengal, who fought the East India Company here.

The place had traditional skills of making firearms, and hence selected by the East Indian Railway for one of its earliest workshops. The location selected was at the foothills of Rajmahal range (a part of Chhota Nagpur Plateau), which was high enough to survive any threat of floods from the Ganga, and the hills secured it against any organised attack from an army. The location had a tomb of Baba Jamal Saheb, after whom the place was called Jamalpur. Jamalpur Workshop was established more than 138 years ago, on 8th of February 1862.

History

IRIMEE had humble beginnings, when it started in 1888 as a technical school attached to the Jamalpur Workshop] . It came into national prominence when it started the training of Special Class Railway Apprentices as Mechanical and Electrical engineers, starting from the year 1927. In 1974, the school was made a Centralised Training Institute (CTI), renamed as Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, and brought under direct control of Railway Board. It is, therefore, the oldest of the CTIs.

The hostel for the Special Class Railway Apprentices is the Jamalpur Gymkhana

In 1988, the training of IRSME probationers was centralised under the control of Director, IRIMEE but with HQ at Kharagpur, where there was an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) co-ordinating the training with the Director. From 1997, HQ of IRSME Probationers was shifted to Jamalpur.

The IRIMEE is one of six Centralised Training Institutes that share the task of training of officers. The other Centralised Training Institutes are:

* Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering, Pune for civil engineers,
* Indian Railway Institute of Signal and Telecommunications Engineering, Secunderabad for engineers of S&T department,
* Indian Railway Institute of Electrical Engineering, Nasik for Electrical Engineers,
* RPF Academy Lucknow, for officers of Railway Protection Force and
* Railway Staff College, Vadodara functions as the apex training institute for the officers of all departments in general and Accounts, Personnel, Stores, Traffic and Medical departments in particular.

The IRIMEE is headed by the Director, IRIMEE. The director is supported by a faculty of Professors. The senior faculty is made of officers of the Indian Railways on temporary assignment. Therefore the administration function is managed by the faculty without any specialist administrators.

Courses and Activities

IRIMEE conducts short term courses for IRSME Officers and other Organisations, viz.

* 4 Years of Theoretical and Practical training of Special Class Apprentices leading to a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. The course work is slanted towards the Railways needs. So it has strong emphasis on Industrial Engineering & Production Engineering. This is achieved through a "Thick Sandwich" course with
** Alternating Classroom ("School Session") and Practical ("Shop Session") Training
** Term papers and project based on assignments in the Workshop
** Credit courses at other Universities & Colleges
** Final year project involving design and manufacture
* Professional courses for serving officers and supervisors of Mechanical Engineering Department
* 78 weeks of Training for IRSME Probationers. And also Introductory courses for Probationers of other departments
* Special Courses for Non-Railway Organisations and Foreign Railways

ee also

Indian Railway Organisational Structure

Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers

External links

The official website of the IRIMEE [http://www.irimee.ac.in/]

A very informative Report by the Director, IRIMEE [http://www.irimee.ac.in/irimee/report05.pdf]