Today's Cancelled Trains
Railway Recruitment
20:23
Showing posts with label IRSE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IRSE. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Saturday, 19 September 2015
train accident
07:55
Train Accidents,who look after safety related aspects
Train Accidents,who look after safety related aspects
New Delhi: The recent unusual spurt in the number of train accidents on Indian Railways, particularly cases of derailments, has come at a time the top management at the Railway Board is gripped in an unusual setting – the absence of a full-time Member (Traffic), who looks after safety related aspects, for more than seven months since February.
Currently, Additional Member-Traffic Transportation Kundan Sinha is looking after the role of Member Traffic as additional charge since 1 August. Before him, Additional Member-Commercial Ajay Shukla held the post of Member Traffic between February and July. The reason being, apparently there is not a single General Manager from the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) with the required level of experience vel of at present.
“The lack of a GM from the traffic service to fill up the post of Member-Traffic is attributed to the fact that traffic service officers are selected through the civil service where the average age of an officer is 27 years. This is three years more than the average age of an officer selected through the engineering service for other railway services,” explained a former railway board Chairman. “So, by the time an average traffic service officer reaches the eligible age for becoming a GM, he is already nearing retirement.”
A senior rail ministry official said there is availability of GMs from the traffic service but they lack the experience required to become Member-Traffic. “This is just a technical issue. It is not a problem as even an officer on additional charge works like a full-fledged Member-Traffic,” he said. He added safety-related matters are reported to both the Member-Traffic and the Chairman of the board. “But actually safety issues are addressed by all the departments including engineering, electrical and mechanical etc,” he said.
There is something else equally unusual in the top management at the railway board, the seat of administration of Indian Railways at the Rail Bhawan. The current Chairman of the board, A K Mital, is the first officer of the Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) to be heading Indian Railways in its 160 year-old history. Traditionally, officers from three services – Indian Railways Service of Engineers (IRSE), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) and Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) — have risen to occupy the post of Chairman, Railway Board.
Before becoming the Chairman, Mital was Member-Staff at the railway board. He has also held other important positions in the past including GM-South Western Railway (SWR) along with the additional charge of GM at three other zonal railways. Addressing a media interaction last week, that followed rail minister Suresh Prabhu’s emergency meeting with all the GMs of zonal railways on safety, Mital had said the overall number of accidents has come down by 25 per cent to 54 in the current fiscal so far.
“But this does not mean the situation is okay. We are analyzing all the accidents to take corrective action. The analysis shows 40 per cent of these accidents were avoidable, meaning they occurred due to system failure including both equipment and employee,” he said, adding the margin to address issues of delays in taking corrective action has shrunk due to high capacity utilization of the network.
He also said funds were a constraint for system improvement but that issue is being addressed now. Post the GMs meeting, where Prabhu asked GMs to pull up efforts on safety improvement, the ministry has decided to seek around Rs 1 lakh crore assistance from the finance ministry for a Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF). This comes within months of the presentation of the rail budget on 26 February in Parliament.
The GMs meeting had followed two train accidents within a day and at least eight derailments in the past nine months of 2015. Earlier this month, at least 42 people were injured after six coaches of the Chennai-Mangalore Express derailed in Tiruchi near Poovanaur district in Tamil Nadu. Also, two trains had derailed within minutes at the same spot near Harda in Madhya Pradesh in August claiming 29 lives. The year 2015 has so far seen eight train accidents due to derailments. (courtesy: business standard)
Sunday, 30 August 2015
“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.
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Indian Railways is facing line-capacity constraint on many sections -Chairman of the Railway Board
CRB stresses for Zero Tolerance to Signaling Failures on Indian Railways
Expressing serious concerns over the number of accidents involving trains, Chairman, Railway Board, AK Mital today called for zero failure in signalling systems at the Two day International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems”
New Delhi: Expressing concern over the number of accidents involving trains, Chairman, Railway Board, AK Mital today called for zero failure in signalling systems in the two day International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems” that began today, organised 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 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, Chairman Railway Board Shri A. K. Mital said that Signaling & Telecom constitute the brain-power and software for railway system. Safety and orderly movement of traffic is critically dependent on the type and reliability of the signaling and telecom equipment. Indian Railways has over the years vastly modernized its signaling and telecom systems by extensive use of electronic interlocking, OFCs, Colour Light Signals and Automatic signals. Railways today deploy the state-of-the-art signaling suited for our system of working. We have installed modern Electronic interlocking at more than 5000 stations and almost eliminated end-cabins. Communication system which is the backbone of the train operation is mostly an extensive network of OFCs. We have set up a specialized company, RailTel, which not only meets all the in-house requirements of the Railways but also has ventured into the adjacent areas in Telecommunications and carved out a reputation for itself. S&T inputs have helped us to optimize capacity utilization in a mixed traffic environment where different kinds of passenger and goods trains with different speed and operating characteristic run.However, we still have a long way to go in achieving zero failure in equipment and in migrating to a system which eliminates human error altogether as in the case of advanced railway systems in the world. In future, we have to think of centralized traffic control, cab-signaling and ATP (Automatic Train Protection). All these technologies are available but we cannot simply take and transplant them on Indian Railways. A lot of work is needed to tailor and customize the technologies to our requirement and to make them sturdy and robust under Indian conditions.
Stating that more than 60 per cent of total accidents in Railways occur at unmanned level crossings, Mital asked the Signalling and Telecommunication (S&T) wing to come up with low cost but highly effective solutions to the problems.
“There are more than 60 per cent of total accidents in railways occurring at unmanned level crossings almost every 48 hours. S&T department should work out low cost solution to the problems,” he said at a seminar here.
Criticising signal failure incidents, he said, “There are about 100 signal failures of our lakhs of signalling daily. Though failure is minimum, it is not acceptable. It has to be zero-failure signalling system. We have to have a system which is free from failures.”
“Today we are fully depending on loco pilot for safety. If the driver blinks for a moment, then there should be a technology to support him,” he said.
Mital also expressed concerns over the slow pace of installation of train collision avoidance system (TCAS), and stressed on the need to expedite it to curb mishaps.
“TCAS trial is going on for the last three years,. Now time has come to complete the trial on the 250 km section in one year,” he said.
TCAS is indigenously developed by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and its trial is going on in Delhi-Agra section and Chennai suburban route.
Mital said that our Signaling & Telecom team has done pioneering work by developing a Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). This can potentially achieve all the functions of ATP in the Absolute Block Signaling territory at a fraction of the cost. He called upon to expedite the field trails and take early measures to adopt it for the benefit of Railways.
Mital hoped that today’s convention would provide our officers a platform to share their experience and expertise and also learn from a similar good work done by their counterparts from other railway systems.
In his address Member Electrical Railway Board Shri Navin Tandon said that Indian Railways is having a determined vision to modernize its infrastructure by induction of state-of-art and user friendly technologies, with a view to bring in radical improvements in line capacity, safety and efficiency.
Signalling & Telecommunication Engineering provides for a whole range of technologies to provide cost effective solutions in enhancing Safety and Line Capacity and disseminating train running. While we have initiated steps for installation of fire alarm systems, it is high time to use Fire Suppression system in future to avoid repetition of such cases. I would also request experts attending to deliberate and find effective steps and methodology not only for preventing, detecting and suppressing the fire hazards but also on strategies so as to have faster recoveries God forbid if such incidence occur again. Indian Railways under the modernization plan for signaling and telecom assets have adopted modern S&T solutions like centralized operation of signaling system, Block Proving by Axle Counters etc. Throughput enhancement has been achieved by providing Automatic Block Signalling and IBS on high density routes. This has resulted into increased safety and line capacity.
Indian Railways is facing line-capacity constraint on many sections. Hence, we have to find new solutions to create additional line capacity on urgent basis. This conference will deliberate on Advances in Command, Control and Communication systems for Main Line.
Metro and High Speed Transit systems with the main objective to increase capacity by safely reducing the headway between the trains. With these kind of systems, the position of a train is accurately known and thus it results in more efficient and safe utilization of assets.
However, these systems make use of open standards for wireless digital communications which can be subject to various types of hacking including intrusion in the communication network and tampering with safety critical message which in the worst case can result into a safety hazard. Suitable techniques for securing open networks must be carefully analyzed and adequate controls must be implemented to protect the system from such malicious attacks.
