How China surpassed Indian Railways in technology?

High rail network work,

Rail lines modernization

Issues and Opportunities

1. People in the Railway Staff College and IRISET Signaling Institute, Secuendrabad should get serious and start preparing student in new technologies, develop strong engineering talent and supply talent not only for our internal utilisation for outside world too. Shri C.P Verma- Director General of Railway Staff College is wasting precious time, resource and lacks expertise to run Railway Staff College. Also R. L Gupta, Director IRISET is blindly following age old teaching practices, lacks global perspective what is going in Europe and America. We are missing lot of action and opportunities.Ministry of Indian Railways should consider alternate options and take serious action in this regard. The solution is to put IIT Professor who has Phd and strong academic experience in teaching and has engineering connections.

2. There are huge opportunities to export our engineering talent ( track engineering, signaling, electrification) to Central America, Africa and South East Asia. Ministry of Indian Railways should take some concrete actions this week otherwise it will be too late.

- China has become an increasingly important global partner in railroad, thanks to an enormous invetsment plan in recent years to upgrade and expand its own rail sector.

- China is sending next month 400 engineers to California to build high speed rail network.

- CHina is also investing $2.5 Billion in construction of rail lines, equipment in rail innovation project.

Is Mamta Banerjee listening and taking note of things happening around the world.

Why can't Indian Railways do when chinese can do. Is Mamta Banerjee listening...

-prakash pant

Shri J.K.Saha,

Executive Director - Public Grievances

Railway Board

It is a shame that Indian Railways has still not learned from the past four accidents due to signaling incidents and where locomotive driver crossed the signal. Over 600 people have died since January 2010 due to negligience of Railway Officials.

There is something called Train protection and Warning System. Why this has not been deployed in all the trains and in all the railway zones.

Hon'ble Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee is taking safety topic very lightly and this needs to be thoroughly investigated. This is shame.

What kind of country and government would that be who can't take care of their own people's safety. May the departed soul rest in peace who died and impacted families in recent West Bengal Rail accident.

Issues and action due

1. Have the signals inside the train engines connected to brake system which automaticaly stops the train.

2. Mamta Banerjee must be prosecuted for voluntary manslaughter. It is a crime she has committed and she is guilty of this crime.

3.Ministers are morally and operationally responsible for loss of human lives taking place in their respective ministries. Such incapable ministers who refuse to learn from past mishaps should be tried in a criminal court, mere resignations will not suffice.

Regards,

Prakash L. Pant

Copy to: Mr Kapadia Hon'ble Chief Justice of India

Copy to: Editor, New York Times and Washington Post

Railway Accidents & the role of the Railway system

In Indian railways the safety of all the passengers is depending on 2 men i.e. Loco Pilot & Asst Loco Pilot and in suburban section only on one man i.e. Motorman.

In each & every transport system at least 2 or three persons ensure safety. In an accident if driver died the 1^st statement from railway authorities comes (without any inquiry) “Driver ki galti thi”. Why? What the whole system is doing?

After enquiry of the accident the authorities conclude as due to Human error, but there are several issues to be discussed in intellectual way –

1. Why the whole safety is depending on mercy of Driver or motorman alone?

2. What is the security of Driver/ Motorman driving the train?

3. Who is monitoring his consciousness?

4. How many hours a man can have such a great concentration, required to drive a train? As a motorman passes about 2 signals beside several other obstructions/ trespassers.

5. Whether the Driver or Motormen has availed sufficient Rest?

6. Whether the Driver or Motormen has been provided proper accommodation to take proper rest in day time?

7. What should be the perk of a man responsible for the life of thousands of the passengers?

The senior railway officers feel relaxed by putting the responsibility of a person for any accident and most of the time that individual is driver or motorman, sometimes the responsibility goes on material/ equipment failure. Here a question arises, “what is the responsibility of this huge management system? Where the managers are more than the working hands.

Today an office clerk work only 40 hours a week with all the nights at home in bed and a weekly rest of 63.5 hours, where as a Driver or motorman work 52 hours per week and get only 30 hours rest in the week though he work against nature & round the clock why? What is the justification railway is having for this discrimination?

If the government of india is serious to stop the reoccurrences of such accidents, then they have to think the above questions. It is always expected that a judiciary committee should be appointed to consider the working conditions & responsibility of Motorman or Loco Pilot, as the Railway officials behave in biased way like the Fast Track Committee who recommended 10 hours work from the Loco running staff.

by Western Railway Motormens Association

Mamta Banerjee- The Silent Killer

There is an age old saying "prepare for the worst so you won't be surprised or shocked". I guess as innocent rail passengers we should n't be preparing for the worst scenario every day or every month, this is crazy. Assuring passenger safety is the duty of railways. Since last 14 months we Indians have witnessed 14 months, that's the track record. Unfortunately not worth bragging about. It's shame that neither mam Banerjee nor Commisioner of Rail Safety has learned from the past rail accidents. When will our Railway officials learn from the past accidents. Recent accident that occured in West Bengal is another one to the major list.

According to Rail Industry experts, Insurance Claims or rescue operations in the last 14 rail accidents have costed Indian Government over Rupees 400 crores on a conservative estimate, this money could have been utilized to pay for modernization and upgrade efforts..

a) Train Protection & Warning Systems: Prevents train collisions.

b) Training of Locomotive Drivers: Educating and hiring highly skilled & experienced loco drivers.

c) Proper Design, Testing, Verification and Validation of Signaling Plans, Table Control Generations, Electronic & Relay Applications.

d) Planning for GSM-R: Better and faster communications between control rooms and train loco drivers.

Mamta: Please act now and protect innocent rail passengers from these ghastly accidents. I hope railways officials are listening....

Your sincerely

Dr. Tapan Roy

At least 60 feared dead as trains collide in West Bengal

SAINTHIA (WB) : At least 50 persons are feared dead and several others injured when Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express from New Coochbehar rammed into the rear of the Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express at Sainthia station in Birbhum district early Monday.

15 bodied have been recovered while a senior official said, on the condition of anonymity, that at least 50 people could have died.

Heavy casualty was feared as three coaches, two unreserved and a luggage (SLR) van, of Ranchi-bound Vananchal Express turned into a mangled heap of steel due to the impact.

Sources in Suri hospital said that 15 bodies were brought to the hospital. Some injured were also taken to Sainthia hospital, but the number of dead brought there was not yet known.

Injured passengers were being taken to hospitals in Sainthia, and Suri, the district headquarter town.

The diesel engine of Uttarbanga Express was badly smashed. Eastern Railway sources in Kolkata have confirmed that the driver of the Uttarbanga Express, M C Dey, had died but there were no reports about the fate of assistant driver N K Mandal. The guard of the Vananchal Express, A Mukherjee, had also died in the accident.

The severity of the impact could be gauged with the fact that the roof of one of the coaches of the ill-fated train mounted the footover bridge across the platform.

According to sources, the accident occurred at 1.54 am when 3148 down New Coochbehar-Sealdah Uttarbanga Express rammed into 3404 down Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express after overshooting the signal.

Vananchal was several hours behind the scheduled time of 20.54 pm and was leaving platform no 4 at the time of accident.

The scheduled arrival and departure of Uttarbanga Express at Sainthia was 1.38 am and 1.39 am. It was not clear why the train, which was to halt at the station, arrived on a high speed.

The sources said the up line was clear and no train on that route has yet been cancelled.

Eastern Railway has opened control rooms following the accident. The stations and their phone numbers are Sealdah (033-23503535, 033-23503537), Malda (06436-222061), Bhagalpur (06412-4222433), Jamalpur (063444-3101)

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee, chairman, Railway Board Vivek Sahay, Railway Board member (electrical) Sudesh Kumar and director general of railway health service B K Ramteke, Eastern Railway general manager V N Tripathy and other senior officials have left for Sainthia.

Relief trains from Rampurhat, Asansol and Burdwan have left for the accident spot, about 191 km from Kolkata.

Gujarat Express coach gutted

DRM rules out short-circuit theory, says human error could have been cause of fire

Ahmedabad : The first class coach of Gujarat Express 9011 was mysteriously gutted about three hours after its arrival at Ahmedabad railway station from Mumbai, on Sunday.

The train which had arrived at about 2.45 pm on platform number 2, was about to depart for its maintenance yard at 5.15 pm when some bystanders noticed willows of smoke rising in the air from the coach FC1 and alerted the railway staff.

On receiving the information senior officials of Ahmedabad Railway division rushed to platfiorm number 2, and summoned three fire tenders to fight the fire. The cause of the fire was not ascertained till the filing of this report.

The fire tenders took about 2 hours to douse the fire

However, the officials rejected short-circuit to be the cause of fire, and said that it must have been because of careless attitude of a passenger who must have abandoned ignited cigarette butt or any other fire object in the coach. The fire tenders took about 2 hours to douse the fire. The affected coach was disconnected from the rest coaches.

According to Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Ashok Garud, “Short circuit may not be the cause of the fire, instead, a passenger seems have careless left the ignited cigerette butt which could have become the cause of fire.” The “C” coupe of the coach was found to be severely affected.

The FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) officials too had visited the spot and have discarded the short-circuit theory. They said that the cause of fire must have been because of some other reason.

Though the fire was noticed at about 5.15 pm, it took more than half-an-hour for the railway staff to unlock the coach to fight the fire. By the time the doors to the coach were open, the fire had engulfed almost interiors .

It may be recalled that during the Sabarmati Express tragedy, the FSL had undertaken various experiments to get to the root cause of the fire. The FSL had tried various ways to ascertain the cause of the tragedy including throwing ignited butts, dousing with kerosene and petrol etc, and concluded that a coach cannot catch fire so easily.

No privatization of railways

NEW DELHI : Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said there was no likelihood of privatizing Indian Railways, even as she admitted that several projects are not being implemented for want of funds.

The minister was speaking at the meeting of the consultative committee of members of parliament for the railway ministry on "Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Railways".

A press release said the minister "reiterated that there will be no privatization of Indian Railways".

She told the committee members that there were "many socially desirable railway projects which are not being implemented because of the shortage of funds".

Describing PPP as an instrument of mobilizing revenue, Banerjee said there was a need to adlop new vision and new thinking for the development of the railways and these have been outlined in the 'Indian Railways Vision 2020'.

She suggested that railway land, not required for immediate operations, could be used for setting up manufacturing facilities as well as for hospitals, medical colleges and training institutions.

Further, the minister also noted that the interests of railway employees and users were being "fully protected" and also "substantially advanced" through the new initiatives.

Vivek Sahai, chairman of the railway board, made a presentation on PPP proposals received by the railways.

Fuel price: Railways face Rs 460cr burden

NEW DELHI : Railways, one of the country's largest bulk consumers of diesel, are likely to face an additional burden of about Rs 460 crore on account of today's decision to hike prices of diesel and other petroleum products.

"The decision to hike price of diesel by Rs two is expected to put an additional burden of approximately Rs 460 crore on the Railway coffers," said a Railway Ministry official.

Railways foot a bill of about Rs 4500 crore annually, consuming approximately 2.3 billion litres of diesel for its 5000 diesel locomotives hauling freight and passengers trains.

The official said with over 40,000 km of tracks serviced by diesel locomotives out of the 64,000 km on the railway network, Railways will have to bear the additional burden.

However, he parried a query on whether Railways will approach the government on the issue.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has already expressed unhappiness over the move to increase the prices of petroleum products taken at a meeting of Empowered Group of Ministers, saying her party was not supporting it and sought its reconsideration.

"I am unhappy. I did not go the meeting," she said opposing the move.

Railways to set up two wind power plants

NEW DELHI : In a bid to cut down on rising power costs and carbon emissions, Indian Railways is turning to wind power. The behemoth is setting up two wind mill power plants with a target of generating 21 MW wind power by next year.

"We have finalised plans for setting up two wind mill power plants in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu at an estimated cost of Rs 140 crores. Both the plants will generate a total of 21 MW power," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The plants will be set up along the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu and in the desert area of Jaisalmer. Each plant would generate 10.5 MW wind power and cost about Rs 70 crore.

India's long coastline and vast desert expanses which are endowed with high wind power potentials are best suited for the wind energy generation projects.

Besides reducing the electric consumption, the wind power will also earn us carbon credits, said the official.

Railways consume 5 billion units of power a year and spend about Rs 5,500 on power bills.

"We would supply the power to the grid and it would be adjusted against our power billing," said the official.

Railways are expecting the plants to be operational by next year.

Railways have already made operational a 10.5 MW plant at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

"We had saved about Rs 8 crore on power bills due to this plant," said the official.

Since wind power is eco-friendly, railways are expecting to earn about Rs 1 crore as carbon credits from the wind power ventures.

The largest PSU with 14 lakh employees is going green by channelising its vast resources.

From designing bio-toilets, using bio-diesel and gravity valve technique to cutting down on water wastage, railways are undertaking a series of steps to reduce emissions and global warming.

Railways explore quota for employees' wards in jobs

NEW DELHI : Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked her ministry to explore the feasibility of according some priority or providing some reservation to the wards of lower-grade employees in railway jobs.

A senior ministry official told media persons the minister had recently expressed the desire to know if wards of railway employees could be accorded some quota, even a minuscule one, in the railway jobs.

The official added that given the apex court's cap of 50 per cent in reservation of government jobs, it might be a trifle tough for the ministry to create any dedicated quota for the employees' wards.

The ministry, however, is still examining the feasibility of according some priority to railways employees' wards in its jobs, he added.

The ministry has meanwhile decided to liberalise its existing welfare scheme for railway employees, which envisages a railway job to the ward of an employee taking voluntary retirement.

As per the existing scheme, certain classes of drivers and gang men can take voluntary retirement and while taking the retirement after receiving their retirement benefits, they can also have one of his sons or daughters employed with the railways, the official said.

But the existing scheme has several lacunae due to which it has never been able to take off, explained the official.

To begin with, the schemes entitles only those drivers and gangman to voluntary retirement who have already reached an age of 55 to 57 years after completing 35 years of service.

Additionally, even their wards have to have certain technical qualifications like a diploma from the Industrial Training Institute and clear a written test and undergo a tough screening for the job.

The ministry, however, has now decided to lower both the 35 years' experience and the 55 to 57 years of age bar for the railway employees to take the voluntary retirement.

It has also decided to make the screening test for the wards of retiring railway employees less tough to accommodate them in the department.

Cleaner & safer railways in ads soon, bids called for ad agency

NEW DELHI : The 150-year old Indian Railways is set for a makeover with a new brand campaign. The ministry of railways is looking for an advertising firm that would help enhance the image of the country’s largest transporter.

“Indian railways is not only a public utility but it also provides a window into the country to foreign tourists. Over the past few years, the railways is largely associated with late trains, dirty stations and thefts,” a senior railway ministry official said.

With the Commonwealth Games in October expected to bring in lakhs of tourists into the country, railways is especially keen to rectify this impression. “We want to assure everyone that railways is a safe and friendly option for travelling,” the official said.

The railway ministry has floated an expression of interest to appoint an agency to chart out an advertising campaign that would ‘build the Indian Railways brand across multi media.’

Interested firms must have an average billing of Rs 200 crore per annum over the past three years, starting 2007-08. The deadline for submitting bids is July 16th.

The ministry is hopeful of appointing a firm by next month. Keen to overhaul its image, the ministry in May this year had also announced a country wide competition for redesigning the Indian Railways’ logo.

The logo would be a part of the proposed advertising campaign. The existing Railway logo depicts a steam engine with the emblem of India, and 16 stars surrounding it to represent the 16 Railway zones.

But the ministry was keen to have a more modern logo that would reflect the recent efforts at upgrading the railway infrastructure as well its financial turnaround.

Manish Patesaria held in RRB scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a railway contractor from Mumbai in the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) scam on Friday, 25th June.

Manish Patesaria, a railway contractor from Mumbai, was arrested on Friday in relation to RRB scam, CBI DIG V V Lakshminarayana said. With the latest arrest, the number of people arrested in the multi-crore scam rose to 11.

According to CBI officials, Manish played a crucial role in the scam by acting as a broker between kingpin A K Jagannatham, former ADRM of Raipur, and suspended RRB, Mumbai, chairman S M Sharma.

It was through Manish, the former chairman passed on the RRB examination question papers and their answer keys to Jagannatham, who used to coordinate pooling in of candidates through agents and training them for the examinations. According to sources, Manish also played an important role in fixing a deal between Sharma and Jagannatham.

CBI got confirmation about the role of Manish after grilling Sharma prior to producing him before court on Thursday. Meanwhile, the special court for CBI posted the custody petition of Sharma to Monday. The court has also asked the CBI to submit details of investigation so far.

CBI court seeks probe report

Hyderabad : The CBI Special Court on Monday posted all the cases of seeking custody of the accused in the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) scam to June 29. The CBI counsel, Mr T.V. Ramana, said that, “All cases pertaining to the RRB scam have been posted to June 29.” The petition seeking the custody of middleman, Manish Patesaria, the RRB chief, S.M. Sharma and the railway personnel officer, G. Sethi, were posted to Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the court has asked the CBI to file a report on the investigation in the RRB scam.

A total of 18 accused were named in the case, and the CBI arrested 11 persons.

The CBI court has granted the police custody of railway engineer, Gopal Reddy, for three days. Reddy was caught with Rs 70 lakh cash in his house. In a separate case, the CBI filed a petition seeking the custody of Macca Masjid blast suspect, Lokesh Sharma; Sharma was identified by witnesses in the identification parade.

One more held in RRB scam

That is Ex.CRB Jena's aide

Jena's son also involved and absconding

HYDERABAD: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a railway contractor from Mumbai in the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) scam on Friday, 25th June.

Manish Patesaria, a railway contractor from Mumbai, was arrested on Friday in relation to RRB scam, CBI DIG V V Lakshminarayana said. With the latest arrest, the number of people arrested in the multi-crore scam rose to 11.

According to CBI officials, Manish played a crucial role in the scam by acting as a broker between kingpin A K Jagannatham, former ADRM of Raipur, and suspended RRB, Mumbai, chairman S M Sharma.

It was through Manish, the former chairman passed on the RRB examination question papers and their answer keys to Jagannatham, who used to coordinate pooling in of candidates through agents and training them for the examinations. According to sources, Manish also played an important role in fixing a deal between Sharma and Jagannatham.

CBI got confirmation about the role of Manish after grilling Sharma prior to producing him before court on Thursday. Meanwhile, the special court for CBI posted the custody petition of Sharma to Monday. The court has also asked the CBI to submit details of investigation so far.

CR : Removes two crucial flaws in rakes

CR : Removes two crucial flaws in rakes

Mumbai : Travel will be safer for well over three million commuters on the Central Railway rail network as it has success identified and removed two serious flaws on its EMU rakes.

One is the auxiliary warning system (AWS). "AWS is a vital system whose malfunctioning results in detention of trains and on occasions adversely affects their safety. The flaw was identified and it has been rectified. It needs some modernisation. We will complete the entire exercise in two to three months and there will be perceptible improvement in the functioning of the system,'' Said M C Chauhan, divisional railway manager, central railway.

AWS has been provided on all EMU rakes to avoid missing signal and controlling the speed of the train as per signal aspect. The system provided by Siemens has been in service for last 19 years. While a total of 50 to 60 AWS-related cases were reported per day, in 50% of cases the malfunctioning could not be detected, despite several efforts. "The problem was studied in detail and field measurements were carried out at different locations. It was established that the malfunctioning was due to electromagnetic interference owing to flow of traction return current through the axle where the AWS engine magnet has been provided,'' Chauhan said.

Now, Chauhan said, specialists with the Kurla shed have relocated the AWS engine magnet on seven rakes and observed their performance for two weeks. "We found that the AWS transient acting cases have practically become zero. We are making necessary modifications in all the rakes,'' Chauhan said.

Certain flaws were also detected on the functioning of the automatic phase control receiver (APC), which have now been rectified. APC receivers have are installed on rakes for automatic negotiation of neutral section. The motorman usually has to operate neutral section button, failing which a train will enter in AC section, resulting in damage to DC equipment. The APC receiver ensures the neutral section negotiation is automatic and there is no damage to equipment if the motorman fails to press the neutral section button.

It was found that the reliability of the APC receiver was poor and its cause could not be established. "Now officials have modified the location of the APC receiver, as a result there is absolutely no malfunctioning. It has been proposed to modify all the rakes in four months,'' Chauhan said.

On the architectural and theme lighting at Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus building, Chauhan said the CR has received a cheque of Rs 3.89 crore towards the first instalment of the Rs 4.86-crore project. "It will be the first project of Indian Railways that will be completed with 100% funding under central assistance provided by the ministry of tourism and civil aviation for value addition to the world heritage monument,'' Chauhan said.

Loco inspector guide train drivers

ALLAHABAD: There are persons in railways known as loco inspectors. They help loco pilots or train drivers and provide them psychological assistance in efficiently driving the trains. They have been entrusted the task to guide the drivers and solve their problems.

In the Allahabad division of North Central Railway which stretches from Ghaziabad to Mughalsarai, there are 51 loco inspectors. Out of these, 19 are placed at Allahabad, 18 at Kanpur and the remaining 14 at Tundla. They have to travel along with drivers and assistant drivers in the raiway engine and give directions which is called `foot plating' in the railway parlance.

The prime duty of loco inspector is to be a competent loco pilot in all respects. It means that driver should have good knowledge in technical and safety aspects with good driving skills. The loco inspector reads weakness of loco pilot is one area which requires additional efforts and try to eliminate the same by adopting different methodology through counselling.

They also improve human touch with loco pilots will develop good relations in understanding their day-to-day problems. The loco inspectors try solve the domestic and official problems of the drivers so that they can concentrate on driving. The loco inspectors always update loco pilots knowledge in regard to latest safety circulars, technical circulars, etc., on various technical/safety aspects.

NCR spokesperson Amit Malviya said that job of loco inspector is of paramount importance as he helps the loco pilot in properly driving the train.

Analysis of Failures in Signaling Systems

1. Lack of domain Knowledge in Signalling and Telcommunication Dept relating to Signalling and Traditional Route Relay interlocking Systems, This creates a technological gap between the software programmers and the Domain consultants. This leads to major errors in software, which might lead to unsafe failures of the system.

2.Increasing the complexity of the System by Employing distributed architecture, which is difficult to validate and verify and difficult to maintain, thus leading to very high time repair.

3. Extending the working scope of the Interlocking systems for monitoring and other non-Interlocking functions, which leads to degraded performance of the system.

4. Employing Non-Formal Interlocking principles instead of traditional RRI Principles leads to software complexity. For Example: The Geographical method needs every system that is installed for new Yard needs validation, which is not practicable.

5. Since the software and hardware is so complex, complete test of the system is not possible and most of the faults are revealed at the field Installation stage or during normal working of the system in field. The software is to be changed for every yard , the software structure should be in a generic form, but we seldom see a generic form and this the stage errors creep in.

6. The lack of standardization in the railway working principles and the core Interlocking principles, the software developers are forced to do changes in the software for every yard in Different railway zones, this is the time that errors in the software creep in.

7. Because of the above said reasons the Interlocking systems have failed to create the necessary confidence in the railway operators.

If we examine broadly the reasons for failure and lack of reliability and maintainability that are forced by the signal designers are as follows:

A. Lack of standardization of interlocking principles, every railway zone ( 16 railways zones in Indian railways) has its own set of rules and principles which are conflicting with other railways, this makes the life of the developers difficult because they have change their systems settings and software accordingly.

B. There is no standard book or reference available describing the core interlocking principles, since these rules are only known by the people working in this domain.

C. Increase in the complexity of the software leads to difficulty in testing, since most of the Interlocking systems are sequential machines they are error prone are very difficult to test.

Analysis by Sandeep Patalay