Newly constituted Technology Mission for Indian Railways to Focus on Development of Innovative Safety Technologies

Newly constituted Technology Mission for Indian Railways to Focus on Development of Innovative Safety Technologies

New Delhi:  Indian Railways have been the engine of economic and technical growth and development in India. Railway Safety is not merely an area of national concern but also poses challenges to the engineering and research community of the country. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is silently working to bring Indian Railways back on track, while giving special attention to improving passenger amenities, including the e-ticketing system, which now books 7,200 tickets per minute, against 2,000 in the old system. Two months into the new financial year, Prabhu is already implementing many proposals that he made in the Railway Budget in February.  The ministry has also decided to set up a “Technology Mission for Indian Railways” as a consortium of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human resources Development, Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Industries, on an investment sharing model for taking up identified railway projects for applied research and use on the Indian Railways. Prof N.S. Vyas, former head of department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT-Kanpur has been made the “mission chairman”.

The recently constituted Technology Mission for Indian Railways shall now focus national attention and drive modern technologies of monitoring, control, communications, design, electronics and materials for Railway Safety. The earlier national programs on space and defense research have not merely achieved goals specific to the missions, but have also provided impetus to technology endeavors in institutions all across the country.

A Technology Mission for Indian Railways will similarly help to initiate and incubate design and development projects of significant national importance.

Technology issues on Railway safety and economy relate to multitude of engineering disciplines. The mission will help to pool relevant engineering knowledge, expertise and resources available in various research organizations and academic institutions in order to address these issues in an efficient manner.

The Mission objective is to develop and adopt state-of-the-art safety, control and design technologies defined by needs related to Indian conditions. The Mission will formulate and implement projects aimed towards achieving higher throughput, lower cost of transmission per unit and safer train movement.

Indian Railways are the backbone of the country’s economy and an integral part of our social fabric. It is one of the largest rail networks in the world with a total of approximately 65,000 route kilometers. Indian Railways run nearly 14,000 trains and carry 14 million passengers and more than a million tons of freight every day. Unlike developed countries, Indian Railways operate under vastly challenging circumstances of over crowding, low cost of travel, longer trains etc. The challenges posed in terms of technology development and implementation, are also thus greater, varied and unique in nature. These challenges also provide enormous opportunities for utilization of available human and technical resources for development of safer and economical Railway network. India competes with nations of the world in Space, Nuclear and Software Technologies. It is important that Railways’ mammoth technical network be energized through research and development, in order to spur widespread infrastructure and economic development.

The Technology Mission for Indian Railways will collaborate with Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, IIT-Kanpur and a consortium of industries for developing technology for achieving higher level of safety in train operations and formulate a Corporate Plan for safety enhancement which include funds already available under the non-lapsable Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) and the Railway Safety Fund (RSF). The Plan also envisages stepping up non-budgetary initiatives to meet additional requirements for money. The need for the Corporate Plan has been felt for quite some time so as to have a safety blue-print based on technological inputs, work culture, managerial focus and required investments. Following are the highlights of the Corporate Plan:

• Collisions constitute 7% of total accidents but account for 38% of total fatalities. Collisions will be totally eliminated by extensive use of Anti-Collision Device (ACD).
• Derailments constitute 75% of total accidents but account for only 14% of total fatalities.
• Derailments will be reduced by 60% by following measures.
• Replacement of overaged tracks, bridges, S&T gears and rolling stock under SRSF and current arisings under DRF.
• Elimination of four-wheeler tank wagons, which are accident – prone.
• Reduction of thermit welded joints which are weak areas.
• Improved training facilities – enhancement of human skills.

Rail/weld failures cannot be totally eliminated due to inherent weak nature of thermit weld and inherent infirmities in rail, although measures like “Continuous Track Circuiting” and use of ‘State-of-the-art SPURT Cars’ for rail flaw detection are going to be adopted.Fire accidents constitute 2% of total accidents and account for 2% of total fatalities. Fire accidents and consequent fatalities will be reduced by 80% by adoption of fireproof coaches and fire retardant material in the existing coaches. Fire accidents cannot be totally eliminated as some of them occur because of unidentified elements on which Railways have little control.Level Crossing Accidents constitute 16% of total accidents but account for 46% of total fatalities. These fatalities comprise of road users on which Railways have little control. There has been a rising trend in level crossing accidents in the last decade (+23%), which will, at least, be arrested by following measures.

Social awareness programmes.

• Construction of ROBs/RUBs at level crossings with TVUs > 1 Lakh.
• Manning of unmanned level crossings.
• Provision of phones and interlocking of level crossing gates.
• Use of Train Actuated Warning Device (TAWD) and Anti Collision Device (ACD).
• Overall consequential train accidents per million train kilometers will be reduced from 0.44 in 2002-03 to 0.17 in 2012-13.

• Fatalities in case of serious accidents will be appreciably reduced by use of Crash worthy Coaches and tight lock couplers with anti-climbing features.

Bridges –Following measures are being adopted:

• Under Water Inspection;
• Integrity testing of foundations;
• Non-destructive testing techniques
• Bridge Management System
• Fatigue life and residual life assessment techniques
• Replacement/rehabilitation of identified overaged and distressed bridges.

Filling up of all Safety Category posts on urgency basis. Safety Related Retirement Scheme (SRRS) for gangmen/drivers in age group of 50 to 57 years.

Disaster Management measures for ensuring quick relief and rescue operation Funds requirement for safety enhancement works, including SRSF, outlined in the Corporate Safety Plan.