Neeraj Thakur may be halfway around the world from his native Katmandu, Nepal, but he hopes to use the knowledge he has gained from the RailTEC program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the burgeoning rail industry in Nepal. After earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2016 from Tribhuvan University, Thakur worked for a few years in Nepal’s Department of Local Infrastructure. “Nepal is quite hilly, and we have a lot of rivers, so in the rural areas people have to use pedestrian suspension bridges,” Thakur explained. “My job was to employ contractors for building new pedestrian bridges.”
During the next few years, Thakur worked in the department’s headquarters creating budgets and allocations for roads and bridges, and eventually was promoted to the Department of Roads where he worked on the design, construction, and maintenance of bridges. “I didn’t have the opportunity to learn about railroads in college,” he said. “There were few railroads in Nepal because it is hilly, and they started building railroads only five years ago.”
Arriving at UIUC in August 2023, Thakur expects to earn his master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus on transportation in August 2025. “I wanted to attend a university that had a good rail program, and the University of Illinois has very good ranking in engineering,” he said. “I was looking at rail courses ahead of time and saw the introduction course to track and met with (Assistant Professor) Riley (Edwards),” he added. Thakur joined the RailTEC program and is involved in the student chapter of AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association). “It has been amazing. I get to attend conferences, and I enjoy having the opportunity to present my research to rail industry professionals and the academic environment,” he said of his RailTEC experience. “The management team is supportive, and my colleagues are a close-knit group. Primarily my research work has dealt with track buckling and using inspection systems to collect data so we can tell where track might buckle so we can maintain it,” Thakur explained. “Track buckling is an important issue right now.”
Thakur said he is enjoying his first time in the United States by visiting as many places as possible, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Tennessee, Boston, and New York City. “I’m trying to maximize my time here. Every chance I get, I travel by train,” he said, adding, “The weather is really different, and everything is big in the U.S. – the buildings, the roads.”
After graduation, Thakur plans to return to Nepal with the railway knowledge he has gained at UIUC. “I will go back to Nepal and work on the railroads and make good use of the knowledge I’ve learned here,” he said. “The knowledge about track components, track maintenance, and track inspections will be helpful.”