Posted on : 23-02-2010 | By : India Current Affairs | In : Government
With the aim of enhancing safety, capacity and efficiency in train operations, Ministry of Railways has decided to upmark signaling and communication technology. Progressive implementation of route relay/panel/electronic interlocking, installation of block proving axle counters and data loggers, track circuiting along with multi aspect colour light signallng system are works currently spread over the network. This was stated by Shri Sudesh Kumar, Member Electrical, Railway Board at the inauguration of a seminar on “Role of Modern Signalling, Telecom & ICT system in making Indian Railways a world class Rail Network”. The Seminar was organized by the India Section of the London-based Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) in collaboration with Institution of Railway Signalling and Telecom Engineers (India).
Mentioning the Vision 2020 document of Indian Railways released recently by the Railway Minister in Parliament, Shri Sudesh Kumar said that Indian Railways have carefully thought investment plan for the next decade for upgrading the technology aimed at bringing about substantial improvements in services with user centric focus.
Shri Sudesh Kumar said that the multi cabin mechanical systems which have outlived their purpose will all get replaced with electrical/electronic interlocking system at more than 200 stations during the year 2009-10. Further, for reducing dependence on human and for verification of clearance of track, thrust has been given for track circuiting of the complete station section. Track circuiting at more than 700 locations has been provided during the year 2009-10 and about 1500 additional locations are targeted for completion within next two years. Simultaneously, plans are afoot to monitor the alertness of the onboard engine pilots electrically or biometrically. Filament lamp signals are being replaced with high visibility, low power consumption durable LED based signals. Over 600 stations have been equipped with these LED signals during the year 2009-10 and this will be extended to over 1000 stations within next two years. Data loggers would be installed for progressing from time elapsed maintenance regime towards predictive maintenance of signals, he added.
Referring to the importance of imported technologies, Shri Sudesh Kumar said that appropriate thought has to be given to ensure that adopted technology is customized to environmental and technical needs of Indian Railways and desired safety and quality standards. This needs building up of desired competence levels in existing manpower. He emphasized on implementing best maintenance standards and on making technology more user-oriented instead of being only equipment-oriented.
Shri Sudesh Kumar further added that in order to enhance safety, onboard train warning and protection/collision prevention systems would be installed after evaluation of trial results of different projects currently under way. In order to prevent cases of “signal passing at Danger” (SPAD) and check over speeding by drivers, the pilot project of Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) has been commissioned on sub-urban section (50 route kms) of Southern Railway. The trial of TPWS system on non-suburban section is underway on Delhi-Agra section (200 route Kms). Mobile train radio communication, extension of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) over the entire route are among the measures to be used to improve reliability of the communication system and enhance the capability of the transport system, Shri Kumar said.
Wishing the Seminar a success, Shri Sudesh Kumar expressed the hope that by 2012 when the IRSE/London would commemorate 100 years, the Indian chapter would participate with significant contribution from ideas and concepts that would evolve during the day-long deliberations of the Seminar.
In his address, Shri Ajay Bhattacharya, Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) set up by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India and the Guest of Honour at the inaugural session of the international seminar, made a categorical reference to the core strength of the Railways’ PSU viz. Railtel for extending optical fiber based communication to remote, non urban and far flung areas. The Railtel by themselves or in collaboration with other agencies could also work to extend the reach of the modern communication technology to the remote areas with assistance of the USOF.
Institution of Railway Signals Engineers, known more usually as IRSE, London is an international voluntary organization and active through out the world as a professional body of those engaged or interested in Railway Signalling and Telecommunication and allied disciplines. This has played a pivotal role in making Railway networks in European countries as world class most modern Railway networks. This seminar will help Railway professionals to identify suitable technologies to make Indian Railways a world class rail network.
The topics discussed at the Seminar included “Development of new competence to match existing technologies”, “IP based communication for a safer and secured train operation” and “Broadband on Trains – A means for operational excellence and passenger delight”.
FOR MORE READING
- “Towards Railway Budget 2010-2011”:INDIAN RAILWAYS – PLAN,PRIORITIES AND CHALLENGES – Pradeep Bhatnagar
- “Towards Railway Budget 2010-2011”: INDIAN RAILWAYS : THRUST ON SAFETY ISSUES
- “Towards Railway Budget 2010-2011”:SAFETY ON INDIAN RAILWAYS
Hon’ble Minister- Mamta Banerjee / Shri S.S Khurana- Chairman Railway Board
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To fill the knowledge and talent shortage, Railway Staff College needs to market Track Engineering, Electrification, Signaling Design courses to universities and colleages nationwide. As you are aware that On board signaling equipments are getting sophisticated. We need to do thorough job of preparing our workforce for demanding requirements. I hope you will support my ideas.
New technologies adapted for the on-board control systems have inputs from leading edge expertise in the fields of software, hardware and communications;however the current employees ts involved may not have the adequate understanding on signalling and operation.
Railway Staff College and IRISET need to take proactive role in ramping up the job oriented courses in Track Engineering, Signaling Design and implementation aspects rapidly. Here are some example of the companies that are offering courses, we understand IR too offers only basic and some intermediate courses but Railway Staff College and IRISET needs to do better job of reaching to schools, colleges and private sector to market the courses and stay on top of the latest technologies.
http://www.signet-solutions.com/irse-licencing/
http://www.railtech.co.uk/open-course-programme/
Railway board, IRISET and Railway Staff College should join hands and solve the talent shortage by recruiting top notch trainers/ Professors from IIT train them in Europe on latest technologies and develop high quality courseware and teaching materials. Later these course can then be marketed to REC and other Engineering Colleges.
General impression of the public is Railway Staff College/ IRISET is both the institutions are not doing much to develop the future pipeline of trained manpower. Look at China it is sending 350 engineers next month to California for building sophisticated High Speed Rail Network. Indian Railway should develop a comprehensive workforce strategy to address not just local needs but alo international needs.
Railway Staff College and IRISET should be asked to act immediately. Jai Bharat!!!
What value does Commission
of Railway Safety bring ?
It’s a shame that Commision of Railway Safety has still not published the finding and recommendation of the train collisions that occured in UP, Bihar on the website at least. Why is the Ministry of Railway quiet on this subject. Is the human lives cheap.
1. Is n’t Commission of Railway Safety suppose to enforce or audit periodically the process and safety critical assets of railways and publish the findings about the gaps in railway safety?
2. Taxpayers / Passengers deserve to know which zonal railways are weak in safety matters.
3. What a shame that after 2007 not a single recommendation and audit pertaining to train accidents has been posted on their website. There have been several dozen major accidents since 2007 http://civilaviation.nic.in/ccrs/accidents/Foreword.htm
4. There should be a “Wall of Shame” that publishes the name of the officers who are found to be negligient of their duties and have put passengers at risk. This will serve strong message to officers who take passenger safety and put precious human lives at risk.
Indian Rail Passengers deserve proper response from Rail Authorities. Otherwise Office of Commission of Railway Safety should cease to exist.
You should raise this issue in your newspaper as to why Controller Audit General of India has not conducted audit on Indian Railways for the year 2010-2011. As citizens we are entitled to know the operations and how tax payer money is spent by Indian Railways.
Expressing Frustration over Indian Railway’s outdated Signaling Technologies and Training
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In fact, a closer examination of the railways under Mamta Banerjee will reveal that there has been very little internal technological progress in the past five years. This is because Mamta BAnerjee has invested very little in high technology or advanced training for railways engineers and managers. India’s railway education institutes are wedded to an utterly outdated curriculum. In the railways education faculties, there are virtually no PhDs, and just a handful of post-graduates. There are no research facilities where top railway scientists and engineers can engage in cutting edge research on aspects such as new materials, new suspension systems, machines that can speed up track-laying, track-testing and maintenance.
When it comes to signalling systems, much of India’s network still remains obsolete. Old signalling systems are being replaced at a snail’s pace; and only after enormous presure did Mamta announce a project to modernize toilet waste disposal.
Every small technological upgrade in the railways takes years to implement, and it invariably involves expensive private contractors (often multinationals). Given that the Indian railways transports roughly 20 million passengers each day, one would think that it could afford to invest in at least one IIT-standard university geared exclusively towards research and advanced training for all forms of mass transit. But Mamta has never displayed that sort of farsightedness or advanced vision.
Why Indian Railway is inactive and not responding
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China has become an increasingly important global partner in railroad, thanks to an enormous invetsment plan in recent years to upgrade and expand its own rail sector.
- China is sending next month 400 engineers to California to build high speed rail network
- CHina is also investing $2.5 Billion in construction of rail lines, equipment in rail innovation project
Issues and Opportunities
1. People in the Railway Staff College and IRISET Signaling Institute, Secuendrabad should get serious and start preparing student in new technologies, develop strong engineering talent and supply talent not only for our internal utilisation for outside world too. Shri C.P Verma- Director General of Railway Staff College is wasting precious time, resource and lacks expertise to run Railway Staff College. Also R. L Gupta, Director IRISET is blindly following age old teaching practices, lacks global perspective what is going in Europe and America. We are missing lot of action and opportunities.Ministry of Indian Railways should consider alternate options and take serious action in this regard. The solution is to put IIT Professor who has Phd and strong academic experience in teaching and engineering connections.
2. There is huge opportunities to export our engineerign talent from Indian Railways to Central America, Africa and South East Asia. Ministry of Indian Railways should take some concrete actions otherwise it will be too late.
Mamta Banerjee- The Silent Killer ( Railway minister)
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There is an age old saying “prepare for the worst so you won’t be surprised or shocked”. I guess as innocent rail passengers we should n’t be preparing for the worst scenario every day or every month, this is crazy. Assuring passenger safety is the duty of railways. Since last 14 months we Indians have witnessed 14 months, that’s the track record. Unfortunately not worth bragging about. It’s shame that neither mam Banerjee nor Commisioner of Rail Safety has learned from the past rail accidents. When will our Railway officials learn from the past accidents. Recent accident that occured in West Bengal is another one to the major list.
According to Rail Industry experts, Insurance Claims or rescue operations in the last 14 rail accidents have costed Indian Government over Rupees 400 crores on a conservative estimate, this money could have been utilized to pay for modernization and upgrade efforts
a) Train Protection & Warning Systems: Prevents train collisions
b) Training of Locomotive Drivers: Educating and hiring highly skilled & experienced loco drivers
c) Proper Design, Testing, Verification and Validation of Signaling Plans, Table Control Generations, Electronic & Relay Applications
d) Planning for GSM-R: Better and faster communications between control rooms and train loco drivers
I hope railways officials are listening….
Every responsible Indian citizen should write to Railway Ministry to improve the safety and modernize our rail infrastructure.
Mamta Banerjee- Railway Minister
MR@rb.railnet.gov.in
Gautam Sanyal- OSD to Mamta Banerjee
Tel 11-23388402
OSDMR@rb.railnet.gov.in
J.K Saha – Executive Director Public Grievances
Tel 11-2338-7871
jksaha78@yahoo.com
Sowmya Raghavan – Finance Commisioner
FC@rb.railnet.gov.in
Vivek Sahai- Chairman Railway Board
Tel 11-23382753
CRB@rb.railnet.gov.in
Rakesh Chopra- Member Engineering
ME@rb.railnet.gov.in