November 02, 2001

        Indian Railways is planning to modernise its signalling & telecommunication system in a big way as part of its special efforts to strengthen its safety standards. An amount of Rs 3600 crores has been earmarked to be spent over the next 5-7 years from the recently set up ‘Special Railway Safety Fund’. Signalling equipment of about 946 Broad Gauge Railway stations will be replaced by using this fund. This will be over and above the amount sanctioned in the Budget for replacement of these systems. This was disclosed by the Chairman Railway Board Shri R.N.Malhotra while inaugurating a two–day seminar on ‘Rail Safety–Signalling & Telecommunication’ organised by the Railway Signal & Telecommunication Engineers (India) here this morning. The seminar has been organised as part of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the institute.

        Underlining that the signal and telecom inputs are fundamental requirement for fast, efficient and safe railway operations, Shri Malhotra said that besides providing techno-economic solutions for safety enhancement and capacity improvement, these also provide various other services including online train information to the public.

        Highlighting safety as the main concern of the Railways, Shri Malhotra said that a number of steps have been taken to reduce human error in the rail operations. In this context, he mentioned that track circuiting which has been introduced on all stations with permitted speed of more than 75 KMPH has reduced chances of human errors considerably.

        The Chairman said that with the technical support of the UIC, the Railways have identified an advanced technology of radio based fail safe automatic warning system, which will prevent the driver from passing the signal at danger whereby eliminating accidents due to human error by drivers. The technology is being used on Delhi-Mathura section on a pilot basis and, after its validation, it will be considered for provision of heavy density routes.

        Speaking about accidents on railway crossings, the Chairman said that a Five Year Safety Action Plan for improving safety at level crossings has been drawn. It includes interlocking at 1063 busy manned gates and telephones at 1521 manned level crossings gates. Manning of unmanned level crossings using funds available under Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) is also supplementing efforts in this direction.

        The Chairman further added that the Anti-Collision Device, indigenously developed by the Konkan Railway Corporation and the RDSO, is expected to go a long way in avoiding collisions. It was recently dedicated to the Nation by the Railway Minister, Shri Nitish Kumar. A project has already been sanctioned on the NF Railway for using this device.

        Shri Malhotra, however, expressed concern over the lack of coordination between the RDSO and the Railways on the one hand and between the Signal and other Engineering Departments of the Railways on the other. Stating further that efficient communication is the backbone of railway operations, Shri Malhotra said that many stations in remote areas are still without any worthwhile communication.

        Shri Malhotra also underlined the need for broad-basing the activities of the Institution of Railway Signal and Telecom Engineers to encompass the entire transportation sector. He said that signalling and telecommunication technologies are playing very important role not only in Railways but also in civil aviation and road transport sectors. It would therefore be befitting if the IRSTE serves as a forum for exchange of ideas and integrating signalling and telecom engineering efforts in all these sectors.

        In his key-note address Member, Electrical, Shri N.K. Chidambaram highlighted some of the inherent strengths of the Railways and said that despite intense competition, the network continues to be the backbone of our transport infrastructure. From the orthodox mechanical based signalling system of 1960s, the Indian Railways have reached state-of-art electronic signalling system like axle counter, Radio block, Tokenless block working, Axle Counter Block, Last Vehicle Check Device, Auxiliary Warning System, Audio Frequency Track Circuiting etc. At present the Indian Railways is at the threshold of another revolution in the signalling and telecommunication technology, he added.

        Shri Chidambaram said that Indian Railways are now aiming to adopt signalling systems to reduce human dependence for safety in train operations. Solid State interlocking is steadily making inroads on Indian Railways. The state of art train control systems based on merger of signalling and GSM-R mobile communication systems namely IR-ETCS system is being introduced as a pilot project on Delhi-Mathura section of Central Railway which will work as pilfer proof Accident Warning System (AWS). In addition some other steps taken for safety enhancement on Indian Railways include Centralised Operation of points & signals, Last Vehicle check by Axle Counters, Safety Devices at Level Crossings etc.

        In his welcome address Shri R.N. Kumar, President/IRSTE(India) and Addl.member (Telecom), Railway Board said that with rapidly increasing competition from road and resource crunch, there is an urgent need for Railways to retain its financial viability by making optimum use of its existing infrastructure and rolling stock. Application of modern Signalling and Telecommunication systems like Automatic Signalling & Train management system, Optical Fibre Cable is therefore the need of day, he added.

            The Seminar which will conclude tomorrow is being attended by 400 delegates including experts from abroad, from railways, industry and research and academic instituions. A number of technical papers will be presented during the five sessions of the Seminar.