Research, testing centre for industry on anvil in Chandigarh

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Advertisement

Chandigarh, May 9

In order to improve the quality of industrial products, the UT Administration will soon set up a regional research-cum-testing centre in the city.

The centre will not only certify the industrial products to match international standards, but also provide technical support to the industry based in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and the City Beautiful, said UT Adviser Dharam Pal.

He said it was a joint initiative being undertaken by Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, to cater to the growing needs of the industry in the region. As the city lacked a testing facility of international standards for certifying industrial products, the centre would prove a boon for the industry in exporting their products. Coordinating research under a single umbrella, any issue faced by the industry due to technical limitation would be taken care of by the centre and it would also provide research of international standards on the demand to the industry, he said, adding that the centre would explore research in new fields also.

The Adviser said he had been working on the project for the past six months and even visited the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) at Manesar in Gurugram.

Being a land-locked city, no new big industry could be set up in the city, he said. Keeping in mind the space constraint, a lead could be taken on the technological front where testing, certification and research could be carried out, he said. A technical expert said they had to work according to the needs of the industry and the challenges faced by it. To begin with, they would first have to hold interactions with the industry and take all stakeholders, including institutes, on board.

The centre would have local connectivity, but global impact so that the city became the fountainhead in providing technical solutions as per the requirements of the industry, he added.