Institute

The Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) was established in 1967on the joint initiative of the then Ministry of Shipping and Transport, Government of India, and the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASTRU).

ASTRU represents State Transport Undertakings (STUs) which operate about 110,000 buses all over the country and employ nearly 8,00,000 workers. The main aim of CIRT is to help in improving the quality of public transport through management development, research, testing and consultancy activities. In the larger interests of the road transport sector as a whole, the Institute also opens its facilities to manufacturers and fleet operators in public and private sectors. CIRT has a modern automobile component testing laboratory, where samples of spare parts used in heavy vehicles are tested for quality. The tests so carried out enable the Standing Committee (Supplies and Contracts) of ASRTU to issue rate contracts at competitive prices on firms which supply spare parts to STUs. CIRT is administered by a Governing Council consisting of chief executives of the STUs and officials of the government. The Vice-President of ASRTU is the ex-official Chairman of CIRT's Governing Council. The faculty of CIRT is clustered into three groups: Engineering, Management and Operations . Each group interacts with the other two in carrying out training, research and consulting. The Engineering Research Centre which does testing of automobile components is staffed with scientists drawn from various disciplines in engineering and allied services.