A one day conference on “Emerging Trends in Train Protection and Electric Energy Management Systems” was organised here today by Institution of Railway Electrical Engineers (IREE) and Institution of Railway Signal and Telecommunication Engineers (IRSTE). The conference was inaugurated by Sh. Kul Bhushan, Patron, IREE and IRSTE & Member (Electrical) Railway Board. On this occasion, Member Staff, Railway Board Sh. A.K. Mittal Member Traffic, Railway Board Sh. D.P. Pandey, Member Engineering, Railway Board Sh. V.K. Gupta and Financial Commissioner, Railways, Smt. Rashmi Kappor were among those present on the occasion. Sh. M. Suresh, President, IRSTE & Addl. Member (Signal), Railway Board gave the welcome address. Sh. Man Singh, President, IREE and Addl. Member (Electrical) Railway Board proposed the vote of thanks at the end of the Conference. In his inaugural address, Shri Kul Bhushan, Member Electrical, Railway Board said that Safety of train operation is an area of concern. High priority is being accorded to adopt measures & induct new technological systems progressively to enhance level of safety on Indian Railways. Systems like Panel/ Electronic interlocking/Route Relay Interlocking, Block proving by axle counter , data logger, track circuiting etc have been inducted which has significantly reduced accidents in station area. He said that Corporate Safety Plan of Indian Railways envisages provision of Train protection systems on Indian Railways network to mitigate the risk of Signal Passing At Danger (SPAD) and over speeding by Motorman/Loco Pilots of trains which sometimes lead to accidents. TPWS has been commissioned on Chennai Central – Gummiddipundi (50 RKms) suburban section of Southern Railway and Dum Dum- KaviShubhash section of Kolkata Metro (25 RKMs). Commercial trials of pilot project on Delhi-Agra non-suburban section (200 RKms) of Northern / North Central Railway is in progress with 35 locomotives on nominated trains. Work has also been awarded for Basin Bridge- Arakkonam section (67 Rkm) on SR and is in progress.
He said that Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) has also been approved for covering more than 3330 Rkm Automatic Signalling sections of Indian Railways. In the first phase, implementation of TPWS on automatic signaling suburban sections (where EMU/MEMU/DEMU ply in close loop) of ER, SER and NCR is envisaged. A TCAS project has been taken up by RDSO for indigenous development of Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) for its deployment on the IR network. The pilot project is in progress on 250 Rkm section on SCR and initial field trials have been very encouraging. There is a presentation on TCAS in this conference and I am sure TCAS will be deliberated in greater detail.
Shri Kul Bhushan said that Indian Railways consumed 17.5 billion units of electricity last for its traction and non traction purposes and have a financial outgo of Rs.11,500 crores. The annual fuel bill of IR for electricity and diesel was about Rs.28,500 crore and out of this the electric traction bill was Rs.9600 crore for hauling of about 62% overall traffic. In fact total fuel bill during the current financial year has been estimated to be a whooping Rs.35,000 Cr, of which diesel will be over Rs 24,000 cr as against electricity bill of under Rs 11,000 cr. Thus hauling of traffic on electric traction is the cheapest available mode of transport in the country and Indian Railways is progressing steadily towards Railway Electrification on important and busy routes.
He said that the first captive power plant of 1000 MW capacity at Nabinagar, in Bihar, being set up in joint venture with NTPC is under advance stage of construction and the first unit of 250 MW is likely to be commissioned by May 2015. After the commissioning of all the 4 units, an annual saving of Rs 500 Cr is anticipated. Similarly, Indian Railways is also proposing to set up another coal based 1320 MW captive power plant at Adra in West Bengal in JV with NTPC for which coal allocation is awaited.
He further said that in its endeavour to protect the environment and promoting sustainable development, Indian Railways have planned to proliferate green energy initiatives by harnessing wind and solar energy on a large scale. So far Indian Railways is harnessing wind and solar energy from its 10.5 Mega Watt (MW) capacity wind mill plant and solar Photo Voltaic (PV) modules of about 7 MW capacity at about 500 railway stations, about 4000 LC gates and solar based water heating systems at training institutes, retiring rooms, running rooms etc. The project of wind mill has already been registered with United Nations Frameworks Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is earning carbon credits of 20000 CERs per annum. To expand its footprint in the generation of green energy, Indian Railways has further planned to install about 168 MW of wind mill plants, of which 157.5 MW will be in joint venture model, and about 7 MW of solar photo voltaic modules at 200 Railway stations, 26 roof top of buildings and 2000 LC gates. Out of 157.5 MW wind mill plant to be set up in JV model, REMC has planned to set up 25 MW of windmill in Rajasthan for which the tender is under advance stage of finalisation.
Kul Bhushan hoped that technical experts from Rail Transport Industry are participating in this one day Conference. Dissemination of technical information, mutual interactions and technical sessions planned in the conference shall help in addressing the challenges faced in its implementation and identification of optimum technologies and strategy to implement it on large scale on Indian Railways network, he added. In his address Member Staff Sh. A.K. Mittal said that two biggest challenges faced by Indian Railway today are safe operations and controlling cost of operations. Presently safe operation depends mostly on alertness of loco pilot with very little support of technology. With increase in traffic density and introduction of semi high speed trains, provision of train protection system has become essential to avoid risk of signal jump and accidents. India Railways consumes 17.5 billion units of electricity with annual expenditure of 11000 crore provision of electricity bill and regulatory frame work provides opportunity to obtain power at competitive rates. Harnessing Green energy in also need of have deliberation on train protection System and Electric Energy Management by experts will go a long way in the improvement of the Railway system in our country Sh. Mittal added. He said that Indian Railways should exploit modern technological advancements made in the field of Electrical and S&T systems to improve its efficiency in all facets of train operations and passenger information systems. Industrial and population growth increases the need of transport. Effective signalling system is one of the widely acknowledged means to meet this increased need in an effective and efficient manner in the shortest possible time. Sh. Mittal said that similarly, new emerging trends in electrical energy system will have huge potential of saving in fuel expenditure through innovative and available policy framework provided in the Electricity Act and will go a long way in achieving the objective or IR in reducing the electricity tariff.
In his welcome address, Sh. M. Suresh, Addl. Member (Signal), Railway Board said that this conference is discussing seven papers on the subject of Train Protection Systems and six papers on Electrical Energy Management Systems. He said that conference is having detailed deliberation for improving safety in Train Operation as well as reducing expenditure on power with use of efficient and cost effective technologies.
The conference witnessed path-breaking deliberations, presentations from eminent international and national speakers and participation by over 500 delegated from Govt. Organizations, various Public Sector Undertakings, leading Industries and Manufactures. Issued on concurrent topics like TPWS development on Indian Railways, communication based train control system etc; concerning safety aspects were deliberated at length. The Conference also focused on ways and means to reduce expenditure on fuel through implementation strategy for procurement of power through open access, power evacuation arrangement through dedicated transmission network, energy efficiency initiatives for market transmission, solar power a sustainable energy source including harnessing energy on the available roof top spaces etc.