New Delhi, Jan 17 (Inditop.com) Even as there was yet another train collision resulting in three deaths, the railway ministry drags its feet over the commissioning of an indigenously developed anti-collision device (ACD) that could have averted a spate of train accidents in foggy weather and loss of lives, says the man who designed it.
The ACD, designed and developed by former Konkan Railway managing director B. Rajaram, is credited with having a success rate of 99.9 percent in preventing collisions, after its commissioning by the Konkan Railway and the Northeast Frontier Railway.
“Its implementation is being delayed over the years by successive revision of norms by the Railway Board, even though the technology has met the conditions successfully at every instance,” Rajaram told IANS.
This, he said, was despite the fact that the Research Design and Standards Organisation, the railway ministry’s apex research body, as well as consultancy Lloyd’s Register Rail of the UK, had certified the technology. Lloyd’s Register Rail, a member of Lloyd’s Register group that has business interests in marine, energy, railways and managements sectors, has a team of of over 250 rail consultants globally.
The ADC device, showcased by the National Geographic channel, senses the presence of two trains approaching each other on the same track, bringing them to an immediate halt before possible collision. Three people died nearTundla in Uttar Pradesh after two trains collided in thick fog Saturday.
“The ACDs fill up gaps of what existing systems cannot do, like averting collisions even in block sections (the distance between two stations beyond the range of signals) and in foggy weather when signals are not visible,” said Rajaram, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
During his tenure, the then Railway Board chairman K.C. Jena had officially said ACDs would be installed initially in southern zones by 2009 as part of a phase-wise implementation of the project in all railway zones.
Western technologies relating to new rolling stock or signalling equipment are usually assigned to the Southern Railway or the New Delhi-Agra section — considered the least risky zones — for testing. But a different criteria seems to be applied in the case of indigenous technology, said Rajaram, who holds 14 US and global patents, including the ACD, in his name.
The ACD pilot project was assigned to the Northeast Frontier Railway, where signalling systems work only half the time, and which is plagued by erratic power supplies.
“Sceptical experts, doubting whether the technology would work under these highly adverse conditions, said if it showed results, it would succeed anywhere in the world. They had to take back their words,” Rajaram told Inditop.
He also said there could be some truth in media reports about allegations of a powerful lobby of multinationals delaying the implementation of ACDs, the performance of which has elicited orders from Australia, Israel and Egypt.
