‘Indian Railways need to evolve as per the technological advancement across the world’

The Union Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu addressing at the inauguration of the Global Technology Conference, in New Delhi on May 03, 2017. The Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital is also seen.

Minister for Railways, Suresh Prabhu Inaugurates Two Day Global Technology Conference

New Delhi : Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated the two day Global Technology Conference for Leveraging World Class Technology (International Conference on Development & Adaptation of Advance Technology for Railways) here on 3rd & 4th May, 2017. Chairman, Railway Board, A. K. Mital and other Railway Board Members, DG Research Design & Standards Organization (RDSO) and GM, Northern Railway R. K. Kulshreshta and senior officials were also present on the occasion.

Research Design & Standards Organization (RDSO) is the nodal organization for this Conference, supported by Ministry of Railways and by Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers (IRSE) and Institution of Railway Signal & Telecommunication Engineers (IRSTE). The Conference is focusing on critical areas of ‘Indian Railways – Reliability, Safety and Customer Service’.

Speaking on the occasion, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that Railways are evolving and getting modernised all over the world. Indian Railways also need to evolve as per the technological advancement across the world. Earlier, the budget of Railways was not as per the need of Railways, in past 3 years, Railways investments have been stepped up. The Railways investment shall be increased in coming decade. The need for technological advancement is an imperative. Railways investment shall lead to spin off benefits to other sectors. India is a big market for the Global suppliers of technology at the same time it is important to understand that Make in India is one part and Develop in India is another. The focus is to co develop technology in India. India will then become the hub of technology. Railways is looking for co operation from the Global suppliers of technology and would welcome their solution if they are feasible and cost effective in Indian context.

In keeping with the unremitting agenda of the Indian Railways to augment the pace of its operational improvements through enhancing its pace of modernized technological adaptations, the Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) of the Indian Railways is holding a two-day Global Technology Conference on 3rd & 4th May 2017 at New Delhi. The Technical Engineering Institutes of the Indian Railways viz. Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers (IRSE) and the Institution of Signal and Telecommunications Engineers (IRSTE) are the nodal bodies liaising and organizing this Conference.

With four lead thrust areas viz. Safety, Reliability, capacity enhancement and customer service, the Global Technological Conference envisages bringing in new perspectives and insights in planning for future rail transportation growth in the country and for assessing contemporary global technologies relevant to adoption on IR. The Conference is featuring technical sessions, technical presentations, and table-top exhibits, besides wide opportunities for several industries networking too.

The Union Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu releasing the publication at the inauguration of the Global Technology Conference, in New Delhi on May 03, 2017.
The Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital is also seen.

Besides the knowledge takeaways, it is envisaged that the Conference would enable the emergence of a multi-disciplinary logistics interface and eco-systems that would enable the Indian Railways to deliver new levels of value along with modernization. Several experts from rail transportation development and allied technological industries, academia and research fraternity across the world are slated to deliver presentations and interact with experts of Indian Railways (IR)  for identification of appropriate cutting edge technologies and systems available worldwide for adaptation and deployment on IR and Public Sector Units of the IR.

The broad themes of the Conference are:

1. Enhanced Safety
2. Reduced In-service failures and automated Health monitoring & Inspection
3. Capacity Enhancement and Congestion reduction
4. Enhanced Customer Service

The RDSO has launched a dedicated conference website www.gtcir.in for disseminating information and facilitating registration of participants. The brief details are also available on a conference booklet on this website.

The Conference topics relating to the above themes on which on Indian and Foreign speakers shall be presenting are given below. More than 50 speakers are slated to hold presentations on the under-mentioned technical topics:-

● Rail Fracture Detection System and Residual Stress Measurement of Rails
● Automated System of NDT of Rails
● Latest Technology for Track Formation Rehabilitation
● Improved AT & FB Welding Techniques
● Track Monitoring  System
● Bridge Health Monitoring
● Latest Methodology of Bridge Inspection (Under-Water Inspection of Bridges)
● Online monitoring of OHE
● Permanent Magnet Traction Motors
● SiC Device based Traction Converters
● Latest technology for improving Housekeeping on Trains and
● Adoption of latest Methodology of Rolling Stock Testing
● On Board & Wayside Condition Monitoring of Rolling Stock
● Use of Tilting Trains and Modern Coaches
● Latest Design Wagons
● Fog Vision System
● DPWCS-For Interoperability, Operational flexibility and Push-Pull operation of trains
● Latest tools and trends in use of Data Analytics for Enhancing Safety
● IoT for enhancement of Reliability and Safety
● Improvement in Reliability of Signalling System
● Continuous Automatic Train Control with Moving Block
● Centralized Traffic Control
● Wi-Fi on Trains, including Infotainment
● Latest technology for Passenger Guidance at Stations and Trains
● Latest technology for enhancing Security on Trains and at Stations
● Train protection and warning system
● Energy efficiency in Traction system