RAILWAYS
TO PRODUCE SPECIAL BOGIES
RAJYA SABHA
Railways are in the process of formulating a
scheme to manufacture special type of bogies, keeping in view
the security of passengers during accidents. Coach interiors and
fittings will be modified to prevent injury to passengers during
normal use and in case of accidents. Coach body shall be redesigned
to absorb major part of impact in case of serious accidents in
non-passenger-carrying areas thereby, minimizing risk of serious
injuries to passengers inside the coach.
Modification for improvement to the interiors
have also been adopted for incorporating in new coaches and also
for retrofitment in the existing coaches. Such modified coaches
will be inducted gradually into the fleet as a continuous process.
No target can be assigned for complete implementation of these
modifications at this stage. Also ,development of crashworthy
design of coach bodies is in a preliminary stage. It is not practicable
to assign any target for induction of such coaches or number of
coaches to be manufactured at this stage.
The following steps have been taken by the
railway to improve crashworthiness of coaches:
- An inter-Railway coach competition was held to generate
innovative ideas for improvement of coach interiors and fittings
to make them injury free. Based on short listed innovations,
51 modifications have been adopted for incorporating on new
coaches and retrofitment on existing ones.
- A project has been initiated to develop crashworthy coach
bodies through computer simulation which will be validated
by actual crash tests.
- Design of coach body for change over from screw coupling
to center buffer type coupler with anti climbing feature to
prevent coaches from riding on one another in case of accidents
is also being developed for new coaches.
This information was given by the Minister of
State for Railways , Shri Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply
to a question by Shri Jhumuk Lal Bhendia in Rajya Sabha today.