Focus on safety, modernisation
In an effort to make railways more safe and secure, railway minister Dinesh Trivedi has proposed setting up of an independent railway safety authority, which will be a statutory regulatory body.
“The functions of the authority would be worked out in greater details in line with international practices in the best interests of safety of passengers,” said Mr Trivedi.
He announced setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Rail-Road Grade Separation Corporation of India, to eliminate unmanned level crossings in next five years, where most of the accidents occur. “More than 40 per cent of the consequential train accidents, involving 60 to 70 per cent of the total casualties occur at unmanned level crossings. However, funding is an issue which needs to be collectively addressed,” said the minister. Mr Trivedi also announced setting up a Railway Research and Development Council which will do research and development activities to enhance safety.
The minister said he intends to complete the unfinished task of installation of integrated security system at 202 stations during 2012-13. “Additionally, escorting of trains by railway protection force (RPF) has been extended to almost 3,500 trains. It is also now proposed to integrate the RPF helpline with the All-India Passenger Helpline to facilitate much faster response to the security needs of passengers,” he said.
Mr Trivedi added that the railways is looking to implement the train protection and warning system (TPWS), which ensures automatic application of brakes whenever a driver overshoots a signal at danger and eliminates chances of collision of trains. “To begin with, TPWS is proposed to be installed on more than 3,000 km routes, which would cover the entire automatic signalling territory on Indian Railways. We are taking necessary action to ensure that TPWS technology is suitably adapted to Indian conditions,” said Mr Trivedi. He said that the efforts to develop TCAS (train collision avoidance system) integrating features of different technologies will be continued by RDSO. “These would also be a pre-requisite to increase speed of passenger trains to 160 kmph. The total cost of various signalling and telecom works has been estimated to be `39,110 crores in the next five years,” added the railway minister.
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