Dr RKM CoEM inaugurated at IMU Kolkata campus
KOLKATA : Dr Ravi K Mehrotra Centre of Excellence in Maritime (CoEM) is being established at lMU, Kolkata Campus, as a consequence of an endowment from Dr Ravi K Mehrotra, an alumnus of the lndian Maritime University Kolkata Campus [erstwhile Directorate of Marine Engineering Training (DMET)] at Kolkata, and founder of the Foresight Group, United Kingdom, with an aim to empower his alma mater with enhanced capabilities in innovation and research in the Maritime domain as well as development of seafarers for the future.
A MoU was signed with RK Mehrotra Holdings Limited (RKMHL), on 5 August, 2024 for extending a donation of $ 1.5 million over a period of five years, towards furthering the above objective. ln addition, RKMHL also bears the expenditure of up to $ 0.72 million for construction of the Centre of Excellence building at the lMU, Kolkata campus. The foundation stone of the same was held earlier and the centre was inaugurated Friday ( July 18, 2025) by Dr Ravi K Mehrotra himself along with Dr Malini Shankar, vice-chancellor, lndian Maritime University. Other dignitaries, including several alumni of erstwhile DMET and MERI, representatives from the Shipping industry, Dr Rajoo Balaji, pro-vice chancellor, Shri K Saravanan, registrar, Cmde KD Joshi (retd), controller of examination, M Saravanan, finance officer and were present during the inaugural ceremony.
The centre of excellence in maritime will be promoting research and development initiatives of lMU; Conduct training and education programmes for students of lMU, professionals and industry stakeholders and promote industry partnerships and collaborations with shipping companies, port authorities and other organisations involved in the maritime sector.
Research in two of niche areas, namely, effecting improvements in energy efficiency existing ship lndex (EEXI) through biofuels and developing a toolkit for fuel optimisation on merchant ships are already being considered under the aegis of the Dr RKM CoEM. in addition, research on alternate fuels and application of artificial intelligence, along with other advanced studies, that have a direct bearing on the maritime sector applications, are also envisaged.