Indian Railways

[Guest]

Given the size of daily operations of the Indian Railways, the number of accidents is nothing alarming. It is true that when accident happans in the system it is normally of very big magnitude when you compare with the small railway systems of most of the advanced nations of the world. In view of the higher availability of electronic media in these countries, the safety records of the Indian Railways comes up for review by the intrenational audiance.

With regard to your specific quary about the referance to the safety measures in the Railway Budget, the following portion of Shri Laluji's budget speech is relevant .
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    The Railways will give utmost priority to technological upgradation so that the reliability of services can be improved and operating and maintenance costs can be cut.  In his Speech on the Railway Budget, Shri Lalu Prasad stressed the need for modernization of wagons, use of modern signaling equipment and need to harness Information Technology to gain customers confidence and cut operating costs. 

Wagons are the revenue earning assets of Railways.  However, the Railways since the 90s have modernized the locomotives and coaches, while wagons still use old technology.  Keeping this in mind the Railway Minister informed the Lok Sabha that new high capacity wagons are being designed by the RDSO.  He announced that the prototypes of these wagons will be developed in the coming year and trails will also be completed.  Regular production of new wagons with payload to tare weight ratio of even better than 3:1, will start from 2007-08.  All possible efforts will be made to start manufacturing aluminum and stainless wagons also in 2006-07 to improve the payload to tare weight ratio, the Minister said.         

Elaborating further, the Minister announced that a new policy framework will be put in place for transfer of technology to develop 25 tonne axle load wagons capable of carrying loads up to 80 tonnes as also to manufacture special wagons for transportation of goods such as motor vehicles, petro chemicals etc.          

For enhancing safety, streamlining train operations and increasing line capacity, the Minister said that modern signaling and telecommunication technology will be used.   A multi disciplinary team will be constituted for an in depth study of various advanced signaling and telecommunication alternatives.  This team will submit its report within three months.  After reviewing the report, a policy will be framed for deciding extensive use of these technologies.        

The Minister has announced that the Railways will build on the steps initiated already for using IT in improving operating efficiency of freight transportation.  The Terminal Management System (TMS) will be implemented at all major locations.  The Railways has already brought about significant improvement in cutting delays and improving operation efficiency through implementation of Freight Operating Information System (FOIS) as part of the project Rake Management System. 

Information Technology and computerization will be used for control charting, crew management and Coaching Operations Information System (COIS).  Next year, all efforts will be made to implement Control Charting System (CCS) on all the divisions.  The complete computerization of Control Office, COIS and interfacing of both these systems with National Train Enquiry System will directly benefit passengers and other rail users.   
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