“Zero Accident Mission” - Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu

“Zero Accident Mission” - Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu addresses valedictory session of International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems” 

Two day International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems” concluded today. Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu addressed the valedictory session. It was organized by Institution of Railway Signal and Telecommunication Engineers (IRSTE), (India) and Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE), (Indian Section) in association with Indian Railways. 

The conference was yesterday opened by a keynote speech by the Chairman of the Railway Board, Shri A.K.Mittal and Member Electrical Shri Naveen Tandon. The event was also attended by Addl. Member (Signal), Shri S. Manohar, Addl. Member Telecom, Shri K.S.Krishna Kumar, Hon. Secretary IRSTE & CAO/IRPMU Shri Kundan Choudhary and other dignitaries. 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that main thrust of any transport organisation should be on safe and secure transportation with zero scope of accidents. Indian Railways need to launch “Zero Accident Mission”. This requires integrated approach involving use of cost effective advanced technology and properly trained manpower. He further said that new advances in command, control and communication system can play a very vital role in evolving safe and secure operation environment on Indian Railways where there should be no scope of accidents even in case of human errors. 

Hon’ble Minister laid emphasis on development of suitable technology to control accidents at unmanned level crossings by providing suitable indications about approaching trains and any obstruction on track. He pointed out that in such conferences we should focus on Global Bench marks and assess our standing as compared to Global standards. We should try to develop indigenous cost effective system having global standards suitable for Indian Railways. He requested to foreign delegates and companies to come, collaborate and manufacture in India. India has advantage of skilled man power, big market and large manufacturing base. In addition to internal consumptions such manufacturing hubs should have export potential. 

At the end Hon’ble Minister said that Indian Railways “Zero Accident Mission” should have a definite time frame 

Railway Signalling & Telecommunication Engineering comprises of a whole range of technologies to provide cost effective solutions in enhancing Safety and Line Capacity as well as disseminating train running information to passengers so as to make their journey safe, comfortable and convenient. Indian Railways under the modernization plan for Signaling and Telecom assets have adopted modern S&T solutions like Centralized Operation of Signalling system, Electronic Interlocking, LED signals, Block Proving by Axle Counters. Throughput enhancement has been achieved by providing Automatic Block Signalling and IBS (Intermediate Block Signalling) on high density routes. To prevent the incidences of Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) and Over-speeding, Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) based on based on European Train Control System (ETCS L-1) has been successfully implemented as Pilot projects on select corridors and further implementation on suburban sections with dense traffic movement has been planned. Indian Railways is also in the process of indigenously developing Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) as a cost effective solution for automatic train protection. 

The Conference gave the opportunity to the participants, Signalling and Telecommunication professionals as well as representatives from the industrial and research sectors, such as Efftronics, RTVision, Railel, Huawei, TechnoSatComm, Siemens, Thales, Hitachi, Frauscher, EMC etc from various countries to benefit from an open, relevant and comprehensive information exchange on the state-of-the-art, technologies, needs and requirements, as well as the vision of future systems. 

The two days of the Convention, led by around 20 renowned speakers debated subjects such as: 

•Signalling Trends on Main Line and Metros- Opportunities for Make in India 

•Modern Control, Command and Communication technologies for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Systems 

•Advance Automatic Train Protection technologies like ETCS, CBTC 

•High Availability Systems and Smart Signalling Systems 

•Centralized Traffic Control System on Indian Railways 

•Challenges in adoption of Electronic Interlocking in Indian Railways and their possible solutions 

•Train Management System on Indian Railway 

•Signalling on Kolkata Metro 

•Modern Railway Communication and Ensuring Safety in Communication 

• Empowering through Knowledge and Skill Development 

The conclusions and outputs during the Convention provided the Railway Train Control, Command and Communication domains with a clear vision on the challenges ahead to meet the need for enhanced Safety, Reliability and Line Capacity, the technologies available world-wide and the need for empowerment through knowledge and skill development.