With 540 fatal accidents between April 2017 and March 2018 due to rail trespassing, the Pune-Lonavla section of Pune railway division is the most accident-prone, said officials from the railway division on Wednesday. Trespassing is rampant on the stretch and authorities concerned are taking the necessary efforts to curb the same, railway officials added.To effectively tackle the issue, the railway administration has identified seven major black spots on the Pune-Lonavla stretch where accidents relating to trespassing are most prevalent.

Speaking about the issue, Milind Deouskar, Pune divisional railway manager, said, “There are many spots on the Pune-Lonavla route which are prone to accidents caused by people trespassing railway tracks in large numbers. This is mainly because of encroachments around railway stations and people tend to enter from gaps in walls and trespass tracks to enter the station. Also, many want to save time and do not use the foot over bridge and are seen crossing tracks. To avoid trespassing, we have identified seven black spots along the Pune-Lonavla route and the administration will take the necessary action to curb accidents on this route.”

Deouskar added that the timetable of trains is also affected adversely due to trespassing accidents as most trains run back to back.“Accidents due to trespassing result in a delay in the train queue, which has a cascading effect. The timetable of all trains scheduled on that route gets affected due to this,” he added.

According to railway officials, the black spots identified by them, where trespassing is rampant, are Pimpri, Chinchwad, Akurdi, Kasarwadi, Dapodi, Ghorpadi and Khadki. The railway administration will target these locations with special initiatives to tackle track trespassing.

We are intensifying our drive against trespassers and are also planning to fence station walls to avoid illegal entry points to railway stations, which would tremendously reduce trespassing, officials added.

According to the data available with the administration, every year, roughly 6,000 people are caught trespassing tracks and the number has failed to reduce due to the ignorance of people. Officials added that deaths due to trespassing were 354 in 2015, which dropped to 295 in 2016, and then increased to 540 between April 2017 and March 2018.

With a focus on safe and efficient operation of train services, the Railways is partnering with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) under the Technology Mission for Indian Railways (TMIR) programme.

At a high-level meeting convened recently at the Research & Innovation Facility of TCS at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, top officials of the Mission Implementation and Coordination Committee of the TMIR explored the possibility of deploying advanced technology to monitor the stability of bridges and railway tracks.

Launching of drones for safe passage of trains, particularly at unmanned level crossings and fog-affected routes, was also mooted.

According to railway sources, N.S. Vyas, Chairman, IIT-Kanpur, identified asset management, health diagnostics and corrosion-resistant coating for rolling stock/tracks as priority areas where TCS could contribute.

With huge investments expected in the railways in the next five years, safety and reliability were paramount with increasing axle load and frequency of trains.

Prof. Vyas called for advanced communication technology in the train, off the train, train-to-platform etc.

A different way of thinking about technology was required and TCS could partner with the Railways for such innovations, he added.

It may be noted that multiple research centres were established at IITs/Universities to facilitate TMIR bring in new ideas to the Research Designs and Standards Organisation of the Indian Railways that approves new technologies for implementation, the sources said.

RailCloud Data

The meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of train accidents due to rail fractures in the recent past. The meeting underscored the need for rail cloud data and analytics for actionable intelligence across multiple applications.

Steel for high speed tracks using TATA Steel Corus Technology, corrosion resistance coating using nano technology, condition monitoring of rolling stock and introduction of technologies for modernising manufacturing/maintenance facilities were among the initial pilot projects finalised, the sources added.

A German Railway delegation struck by the volume of commuters who use the Kolkata Metro suggested after a ride from Esplanade to Masterda Surya Sen station on Wednesday that the transport lifeline should have a much larger fleet and increased frequency of trains.

Andreas Becker, vice-president of the VDB (German Rail Industry Association), said Berlin’s Metro network has around 400 trains to cater to a population much smaller than that of Calcutta and its suburbs.

The famous U-Bahn (underground, subway) in Berlin has 10 lines that span a network of around 150km and more than 170 stations. Most lines are underground.

In contrast, Metro Railway currently has 27 rakes in its fleet, of which 23 are functional. The length of the existing north-south line is 27km between New Garia and Noapara.

The 26-member German delegation, which is in India to explore possibilities of collaboration with Indian companies for modernisation and expansion of the railways, had visited Chennai before coming to Calcutta. The team will go to Delhi next.

Becker and other members of the visiting delegation said the snags that often disrupt Metro operations in Calcutta could be avoided through better maintenance.

Of the 23 functioning rakes in the fleet, 13 are air-conditioned. These air-conditioned rakes make 175 of the 300 daily trips in summer. Snags are common -the motors don’t work, a door doesn’t close or cooling is not uniform.

Two new trains that arrived from the Integral Coach Factory near Chennai several months ago have yet to join the operational fleet because of teething troubles.

Metro officials said a fleet smaller than required meant less time for maintenance.

Axel Schuppe, general manager of VDB, said maintenance of trains required constant monitoring for optimal performance. Metro authorities in Germany use “predictive maintenance” to keep their fleets in shape.

“The idea is to be able to anticipate the optimal time for maintenance by identifying possible faults before they occur,” Schuppe said.

Some of the German trains have in-built sensors to collect data from all systems analyse that in real time. There is constant monitoring of all equipment by measuring variables like temperature and vibrations. The pre-emptive process helps identify faults and eliminate them with timely intervention.

Metro rakes in Calcutta undergo a routine periodic overhaul after it covers a certain distance. The limit is 3-3.5 lakh km for non-AC rakes and 4.5 lakh km for AC ones, an official said.

When the German delegation boarded an air-conditioned rake at Esplanade around 1.30pm, the roof seemed a tad lower than comfortable for a couple of the visitors.

Railway Protection Force personnel had a tough time keeping curious commuters at bay.

The delegation was led by Christian Storost, head of division at the federal ministry for economic affairs energy. “It was a fun ride. The stations are clean. Overall, I am impressed,” he said.

According to Becker, Indian Railway’s modernisation plans offer significant opportunities for the German rail industry to partner it.

Concerned about the safety of big cats around railway track in Budhni-Midghat area on the Bhopal Division of West Central Railway zone, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department officials have started special vigil campaign. Forest Department has also planned to hold monitoring of animals around railway tracks with drone cameras. Through the drone camera, officials will keep an eye on movement of tigers.

Railways has recently written letter to the Forest Department to prevent movement of animals around railway tracks. Several incidents have been reported from Budhni-Midghat area in which big cats have been run over by trains. The issue became controversial after NGOs and wildlife lovers raised the issue of felines’ death by running trains. Concerned over the safety of animals, Railways has deployed special team to keep an eye in the area.

The train accident of big cats in Budhni forest division is becoming common thing. Last year (2017) too, there were several cases in which big cats were hit by speeding trains. On February 23, 2017, a leopard and tiger were found dead in mysterious circumstances in same area. On January 21, 2017, a tigress was found dead in Sarvahi village under Shahdol district.

According to sources, wrong chain-fencing around Midghat railway track could be causing frequent wild cat deaths in this area. In previous incident, one of the hind legs of tigress was found missing. Officials suspected that hind leg of the tigress could have been stuck with the train wheels. On December 6, a tiger was killed by train in Majhgawan village, very close to Chitahara jungles under Satna district.

According to Ajay Dubey, Secretary Prayatna, 32 tigers died in different incidents in State during year 2016. He said, earlier, in year 2014, the then Principal Chief Conservator Of Forest (PCCF) Narendra Kumar wrote to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), demanding to reduce the speed of trains in Shahdol, Bilaspur, Katni and Umaria areas.

On December 29, 2016, a young tigress was killed after being hit by a speeding train in Budhni area, very close to Satpura Tiger Reserve. This was the second feline to have been killed by speeding train in State in over 20 days. On December 6, 2017, a tiger was killed by train in Majhgawan village, very close to Chitahara jungles under Satna district.

The Indian Railways (IR) serves the vital function of providing travel access to millions of people on daily basis. In this pursuit, safety of the passengers automatically becomes its first and foremost concern. IR, which plans to convert 55,000 normal train coaches to the significantly safer LHB technology, can’t do so without using stainless steel coaches, and it is pertinent to analyse certain aspects of infrastructure in coach manufacturing and the status of implementation and adoption of specific norms for passengers’ safety.

In the age of constant value addition coupled with environment consciousness, stainless steel is the most practical and optimal choice among all materials. As for stainless steel, India secured the second largest producer tag, next only to China and crossed the 100 million tonne (MT) mark in crude steel production during 2017 touching 3.6 MT during the year, which registered an annual growth rate of 10%.

The Indian Railway sector is adding value at each stage, and stainless steel is steadily gaining momentum. The high strength-to-weight ratio and resistance to impact and temperature shocks makes stainless steel the most fuel efficient and safe option in the Railway sector. The Indian Railways, which plans to convert 55,000 normal train coaches to the significantly safer LHB technology, can’t do so without using stainless steel coaches – another aspect in the context of rail safety that remains the nature of rolling stock being used.

Among the many positive features that these LHB coaches provide, the one which stands out is its ‘anti-telescopic’ nature. It means they do not turn over or flip in case of a collision. LHB coaches use a centre buffer coupling technique of tight locking type to join the coaches unlike the screw coupling technique used by the ICF coaches. The overall geometrical shape has also been designed in such a way that the centre of gravity comes out to be at a lower level than what is presently in ICF coaches. All these factors result in enhanced passenger safety in case of derailment.

Quite often, we observe the coaches sliding over the other when train accidents occur. This sliding nature of coaches and subsequently turning turtle has caused a lot of casualties. The reason for such behaviour of coaches has a lot to do with the nature of a bulk of the presently existing coaches being used.  The results are there for all to see as in the case of Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto Express when nine coaches derailed in August 2017 and there were no casualties. Similarly, none of the Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express coaches turned turtle despite a derailment in 2014. The Kakodkar Committee on Rail Safety as well as the Sam Pitroda Committee on Modernization of IR have also recommended complete migration from ICF to LHB coaches.

Hence, apart from enhanced safety measures, stainless steel LHB coaches also provide an advanced pneumatic disc braking system, modular interiors that integrate lighting into ceiling, improved suspension system, higher capacity of air conditioning and increased length. The coach exterior made with stainless steel and interior with aluminium make it a light-weight structure. All these features enhance passenger comfort and safety in multiple ways.

Such multi-pronged advantages of these coaches made the Ministry of Railways and senior members of the Railway Board announce in 2016 and also reiterate the same in 2017 that ICF coach production would be eventually phased out and all coaches would only be of LHB type. Attempts in this direction have resonated down the order, as many zonal railways are also seeking to shift coaches at the earliest, as the South Central Railway is presently attempting to.

The Railway Workshops are also gearing up towards modernisation to accommodate periodic overhauls and other maintenance works for LHB Coaches as visible in the recent inauguration of LHB Airbrake Workshop at Perambur.

Presently, LHB coaches are restricted to Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Duronto premium trains, but are slowly being extended to other trains. A target of producing 5,000 railway coaches for the present year has been set, which is a double in annual capacity if it happens. In fact, ICF Perambur has recently produced a 100 per cent made in India LHB Coach which helps in strengthening the Make in India initiative.

To take this process further, RCF Kapurthala will supposedly be manufacturing only LHB coaches from April 1, 2018, onwards. This decision to ramp up production will also have a positive spillover effect in boosting production capacities of the domestic steel manufacturing industry.

However, the ground reality remains that LHB coaches can be overhauled at only a few select workshops, which in turn may create delays due to a long waiting time. Other workshops like Golden Rock Workshop in Tiruchirapalli are seeking sanctions from Railway Board to modernise their machinery and plant equipment to cater to the services of overhauling LHB coaches and more such workshops are expected to join this list. All these are activities which involve one to two years of gestation period and are not going to start immediately.

Similarly, the production capacity of LHB coaches, notwithstanding the ambitious targets set, will still have to go a long way as well over 80 per cent of the existing number of coaches are still of ICF variety. The existing coach manufacturing units may not be enough and as a solution, outsourcing coach manufacturing to specialised private players like Alstom or Bombardier can be considered.

Notwithstanding the fact that it needs to be remembered all across the Indian Railways that complete conversion to LHB Coaches, though necessary, will only act as a curative by drastically reducing casualties but not as a preventive for train accidents. While the Ministry, on the one hand, is reiterating the ambitious plans for replacement, there are brand new trains being introduced with ICF coaches. And this advanced coach with multiple benefits come with additional costs to the exchequer. But considering the benefits and longer shelf life of 35 years (compared to 25 years’ shelf life of ICF coaches), we can be assured that the costs will be outweighed.

The issue of a phased replacement and the use of ICF coaches when they get gradually phased out or when their shelf life of 25 years ends is another concern. A solution in this regard can be to use them as places in railway yards for providing retail space to small merchants (as is being done in a few Central Asian countries) or provide space for the direct sale markets or cooperative markets like Rythu Bazars in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where vegetables and small groceries are sold by farmers themselves. It will help in creating additional livelihood. Quite interestingly, a Government School in Rajasthan was turned into a Train to attract Students towards education. The principal’s office looks like an engine and the playground is converted into a platform. Teachers are going door-to-door from May 1 to 15 to convince people to send their children to government schools. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a government programme aimed at providing free elementary education to all children between the age of six and fourteen, and funds are also provided by the Central Government for upkeep and construction of classrooms.

Over two years after it was announced with much fanfare, decks have been cleared for a big ticket railway project — the Rail Coach Refurbishing and Rehabilitation Factory — at Barhi in Sonepat district in Haryana.

After prolonged discussions with the Indian Railways, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has decided to transfer 121 acres of land to the Railways for the factory.

The factory, to be set up at a cost of Rs 600 crore, is designed to refurbish 500-700 rail coaches every year.

Sources said technical issues in the documentation and agreement between the Railways and the HSIIDC had now been sorted out and it had now been decided to transfer the land at the rate of Rs 1,000 per acre per year to the Railways for a period 99 years on leasehold basis.

“A formal memorandum of understanding will soon be signed between the Railways and the HSIIDC to kick off the project which would provide employment opportunities to thousands of youths,” the sources said.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar says that the project would give a boost to the economic development in the region besides providing stimulus to a number of ancillary units, small and medium enterprises.

Thousands of youth would be benefited though direct and indirect employment opportunities, he added.

During the ‘Happening Haryana Global Investors’ Summit’ in 2016, then Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu had announced the setting up of such a unit in Sonepat district.

Earlier in 2014, former Railway Minister Pawan Bansal had announced the setting up of a Railway Coach Factory (RCF) at Gohana (Sonepat).

However, with the change of governments at the Centre and in the state, the project came a cropper. The current project was conceived by the BJP government.

NEW DELHI: In what can be considered as the biggest digital drive by any entity in India to make internet available to the public, the Indian Railways is set to cover more than 7,700 rural railway stations in the country with wi-fi soon. According to industry analysts, the advertisement sales revenue from such wi-fi spots could be as high as $2.5 billion by 2020 for companies that are planning to bid for these projects.

“Already, a large chunk of urban stations under A and A1 category have wi-fi. Now, railway subsidiary RailTel Corporation of India (RailTel) has invited tenders for covering 7,700 stations in the D, E and F categories,” said an official in the know. The Indian Railways has around 8,900 stations across the country. In the largest wi-fi tender that the country has ever seen, RailTel has invited bids from contractors for “supply, installation, testing, commissioning, operation and maintenance of wi-fi services at 7,700 rural railway stations,” and the final date for submission is May 4.

The bidding is being conducted on a reverse auction model, where prices will decrease as the sellers underbid one another to obtain business from the buyer. The railways have decided to go in for reverse auction from April 1 for high-value items, including wagons, locomotives, coach parts, and signalling and track equipment. The transporter expects to save Rs 100 billion a year through reverse bidding.

According to market estimates, globally the public wi-fi network will be worth around $34 billion by 2020. India with its ever-expanding user base will be worth over $10 billion itself by then. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Airtel and Reliance Jio are planning to bid for these projects, sources said.

In 2016, RailTel had roped in Google to set up wi-fi hotspots in 400 A1 and A category stations, which the latter has completed. It has been successfully running ‘RailWire’ and has been able to connect millions of new users in Tier-II and Tier-III towns. When a company does not charge for any of its services, it monetises wi-fi with the help of advertisement revenues. “Ad sales will be a huge money churner for players like Google. They will be able to tap into a new set of customers to which they can pitch their products,” said a source close.

While Google is one of the top contenders for the project, Facebook is also planning to pitch its public wi-fi plan with the Indian Railways. It runs such a project with Airtel. Facebook is coming up with 20,000 wi-fi hotspots in India.

Reliance Jio, which has a plan to launch 1.5 million wi-fi hotspots across India, is eyeing a chunk of the railways project, sources said. According to railway estimates, by 2017 end, around 6 million people were using RailTel wi-fi services through Railwire Fast Wi-Fi services.