Drones to help Irish Railways spot Damage on Tracks

30 Dec, 2015  in Safety / World RailNews by rail

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The company will go to the market in the new year seeking a ‘unmanned aerial vehicle’ (UAV) which is capable of taking high-definition images and provide a live video feed to operators.

The move comes after the company contracted an outside company to provide drone photography to assess flood levels around sections of track near Carrick-on-Shannon, which were closed for 16 days following Storm Desmond, and which were inaccessible by road and rail.

The drones will be used to conduct boundary and topographic surveys, structural inspections and monitoring and vegetation surveys. It will also allow for incident response and to track risks to the network from climate change.

“Our main climate change challenges are coastal erosion on the Wexford line and flood events throughout the network and their increasing prevalence,” a spokesman said. “We would have historically flown the Wexford line from time to time with aerial photography by helicopter, but drone technology is so much more affordable and useful. “We envisage greater effectiveness and flexibility in monitoring our infrastructure, and a lot of potential savings with the use of this technology.”

The rail network includes 2,400km of track and a wide range of infrastructure including bridges, viaducts, cuttings and embankments and coastal defences. The company will seek tenders in January to supply a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and training for up to 10 staff. The drone must include a 30 mega-pixel camera capable of taking high-definition images and video.

What is a Drone?

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone and also referred by several other names is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. The flight of UAVs may be controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or by the remote control of a pilot on the ground or in another vehicle.They are usually of two types; Multi Rotor (that can hover like a helicopter) or Fixed Wing (that fly like an aircraft). The image has some more details an specs of these drones.

What is the use of a drone?

Drones can carry payloads. The payload can be goods, cameras, sensors or any other instrument necessary, within the limits of weight, safety and other regulatory aspects. Data (images, sensor readings etc) that is collected by the drones, are sent to a cloud where they can be analyzed for actions, alerts or insights. Interesting use cases of drones are emerging in Agriculture, Retail and Insurance industries, but the potential for many more innovative uses is huge!!

1. Do you know that drones were used in Alaska for oil spill clean-up after a pipeline break.
2. Do you know that drone can collect water samples to detect oil leaks?
3. Do you know that drones with advanced sensors and imaging capabilities are giving farmers new ways to increase agricultural yields and reduce crop damages.

These are some of the different types of payloads attached to UAVs.

• Multispectral Imaging
• LIDAR Imaging
• InfraRed Imaging
• Thermal Imaging

Unmanned inspection vehicles will increase safety and efficiency for the freight network

After years of accusations of foot-dragging on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) regulation, the Federal Aviation Administration has recently been speeding exemption approvals and announcing new regulatory programs. One beneficiary is BNSF Railway, which has gained approval for a pilot(less) program to use drones to inspect its far-flung network of rails. The inspections could help reduce derailments and other safety problems—and though BNSF isn’t saying so, lead to lower labor costs in the long run.

Rail safety is drawing new focus after May’s catastrophic Amtrak derailment. Though that accident’s immediate cause was excessive speed, the Federal Railroad Administration reports that nearly 500 derailments were caused by defective track in 2014, making up more than a third of total rail accidents. Those derailments caused 35 injuries and $94 million in damages last year. BNSF says its drones will allow for more frequent track inspections,which should reduce track-caused derailments.

The FAA has greenlit more than 400 so-called “333 exemptions” for limited drone operations since this February. But unlike most operators, BNSF will be testingUAV’s outside of direct visual contact with their operator,referred to as “beyond visual line of sight,” or BVLOS, operation. BVLOS operation is regarded as more risky by the FAA.

BNSF has earned this special right as part of the FAA’s Pathfinder program, an initiative to develop UAV regulation in collaboration with industry that was announced in May. CNN and the drone systems makerPrecisionHawk USA are the other two inaugural participants, and the FAA has invited applicants from other sectors.

The ability to fly drones long distances is crucial to BNSF’s goals for the program. The railway owns over 32,500 miles of rail line across the U.S., and says that every foot of trackis inspected in person twice a week. But some of that track is hundreds of miles from any major population center, increasing the expense and inconvenience of manned inspection. BNSF has emphasized that its drone program would allow for more frequent inspections, rather than replacing human crews.

A few technical obstacles do face the program. BNSFannounced that its initial UAV fleet will include AirRobotmodels AR180 and AR200, and 3DRobotics Spektres. Those three models are multi-rotor copters, which would be able to hover for closer inspection of areas of concern, but the range of rotor UAV’s is generally quite limited. The AR180, for instance, flies less than four miles on a charge.

The imaging payloads for these drones is also still a question mark. While visible-spectrum cameras could detect some obvious obstructions, some crucial railwayfaults are invisible to the naked eye. Inspection teams today use ultrasound equipment weighing up to hundreds of pounds—vastly more than even a large drone could tote.

According to University of Oklahoma-based UAV expert James Grimsley, one alternative is laser-based profiling, or LIDAR. The Canadiancompany Pavemetrics has shown its laser-based system can detect hairline cracks in rails and ties, and DARPA is developing a chip-based LIDAR that would be very lightweight.

BNSF representatives have emphasized that safety is the program’s only immediate goal. Though the Federal Railroad Administration reports that rail accident rates have fallen by 43 percent since 2000, freight derailments are still potentially catastrophic. The increasing presence of crude oil on the rails is a particular concern—two crude oil tankers have derailed in Philadelphia in the last two years, just around the corner from last month’s Amtrak crash.

Drones could also save lives even without inspecting track.Hundreds of people are killed every year while trespassing on railroad property—many times more than are killed while travelling on passenger rail. Aerial drones would be significantly more effective than landbound security forces in detecting trespassers.

But, despite BNSF’s public emphasis on safety, drone-based inspections also present a huge potential laborefficiency. The work is both remote and demanding, with the FRA’s description making sure to mention that inspectors may have to deal with “disagreeable insects, toxic vegetation, or poisonous snakes.”

Though injury and fatality rates for rail inspectors specifically are not tracked by the government, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that railroad workers as a whole suffer more than twice the national worker fatality rate, with more than ¼ of fatalities among pedestrian workers struck by trains. Those conditions help push private rail inspector salaries to a mean of more than $71,000 a year, according to the BLS. Equipping those inspectors with drones could eventually allow the same work to be done by far fewer people.

RDA

Capital’s Ring Railway

Capital’s Ring Railway is an ‘available resource with immense potential

23 Dec, 2015  in Northern Railway, Delhi Division by rail

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New Delhi: The implementation of the odd-even scheme in the National Capital to control pollution demands a dramatic transformation in the public transport module. The already packed Metro trains and DTC buses are, in no uncertain terms, ill-equipped to meet the expected rise in the number of commuters. While the Kejriwal government has pledged to increase the frequency of Metro trains and has taken a number of initiatives to increase the number of buses during the trial period, majority of Capital dwellers are still sceptical about the relief that it may bring. The argument is simple:

If the government is compelling people (although for a good cause) to opt for public transport on alternate days, the public transport module in the Capital, first, must be accordingly equipped to meet the demand. On an optimistic note, however, Kejriwal and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu recently discussed the Ring Railway network and how it could be used to augment Delhi’s public transport system. Supporting the odd-even formula, the minister also formed a committee to suggest ways for increasing frequency of local trains on Ring Railway.

But only increasing the frequency of local trains on Ring Railway is a slap on the face of those who will be forced to leave their personal vehicles and travel in them! Ring Railway is a dwindling parallel universe and has completely failed to keep pace with the brave new world of Metro and the fast changing geographical structure of the National Capital.

That said, it is perhaps the greatest hope that the residents of Delhi can look forward to. Despite having suffered continuous neglect by both the Railways as well as the commuters, the Capital’s Ring Railway is an “available resource” that has immense pottential to divert pressure from the already crowded Metros and DTC buses.

For that to come true, both the Railways and Kejriwal government, first, need to address the issues that are gnawing at the very existence of Ring Railway and are preventing commuters from opting for it.

“Men smoke in trains and there’s nobody to stop them”

When I first rode the Ring Railway last year, I saw an assimilation of a hundred scenarios -figments of a Delhi one does not observe from the car and the expressions of men, women and children scrambling off the train in all possible fashion. But along with these also came sights of men smoking openly inside the trains, others gambling with ganja pots in their hands or goons hurling an array of slangs at each other loudly. There was nobody to stop them then and there’s perhaps nobody to put an end to their nonsense even now. It is as if the rules of public transport do not apply in this part of the world and you better deal with it or face their wrath. Spotting an RPF personnel is as rare as snowfall in Rajasthan. Dear Railway Minister, how about diverting some of your funds to these unsung platforms at a time when your government’s ambitious Bullet Train project is costing approximately Rs 1 lakh crore of the tax payer’s money?

 “Toilets are far from platforms and home to rodents” 

Prime Minister Modi may have evoked the sentiments of over a billion Indians by personally sweeping the road to encourage Swach Bharat Abhiyaan but the stations touched by the Ring Railway are far from clean. At Lajpat Nagar Railway Station of the Ring Railway network, it took me about half an hour to spot a toilet, which was lost in the vegetation that had grown all around and inside it. As if this was not enough, the station staff were bathing in the open from a black Sintex water tank on the platform. The toilets, if at all, in most of the stations of the network have faced the same fate due to continuous neglect for years.

 “Where do we go after getting off    the trains?” 

One of the most important aspects of the Ring Railway network that requires immediate attention is the lack of feeder services. Several of these stations are located in secluded areas and one finds it difficult to find a bus, auto or even a rickshaw to reach one’s final destination. If Ring Railway network is really expected to share the load of commuters during the odd-even trial period and even thereafter, DTC and other concerned authorities must ensure that there are feeder bus services for the passengers, who get off at these stations. Auto and rickshaw stands nearby may draw passangers too.

“Trains are filthy and breeding ground for criminals” 

Most of the trains plying on this network are dirty with garbage lying all around and nobody to clean them. If those travelling in their personal air-conditioned vehicles are expected to bopard these trains, cleanliness is perhaps the minimum to demand. Several of these trains are also breeding ground for criminals. Chain-snatching, eve-teasing and pick-pocketing are but common in these trains. Appointment of security personnel, both at the stations and inside the trains, may go a long way in drawing at least some fraction of the commuters.

 “Ticket counters in name only, people live inside” 

Robinson Robert, an old admirer of the Ring Railway, who organises regular heritage tours had earlier told The Statesman that when trying to find the ticket counter at the Chanakyapuri station, he was “shocked to find some people actually living inside”. Most of these stations have only one functional ticket counter and that too without any representative at most occasions. Think of the long queue of people waiting to buy tokens at the well-equipped Metro stations and then fancy the crowds that will follow at these “tiny” ticket windows, if at all commuters are to be diverted to the Ring Railway network.

 “Stations in crime-prone zones and unsafe for women” 

The location of some of these stations raise serious question on the safety of women as they are located in dark patches, where criminals walk freely at night. Stations like Inderpuri and Dayabasti are crime-prone. While the Railways may ensure the safety of passengers inside the train and the railway premises, how safe can our women feel while passing through dark patches in the sadly, “rape-capital” of the country?

IR signs MOU with 3 IITs

IR signs MOU with 3 IITs for setting up of Centres for Railway Research

23 Dec, 2015  in IITs/IIMs and other prominent Institutes Study & Research on Railway Sector / Indian Railways / Railway Board/Ministry by rail

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Union Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu addressing at the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) between Ministry of Railways and IIT/Kanpur, IIT/Roorkee and IIT/Madras for setting up Centres of Railway Research, in New Delhi on December 22, 2015. The Minister of State for Railways, Shri Manoj Sinha and the Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital are also seen.

New Delhi: It is well known that almost all rail operations in India are handled by the Ministry of Railways. The organization has its own facilities for production of locomotives and other rolling-stock besides a Research, Design and Standards organization to carry out research work in rail technology, standardization and application to attain self-sufficiency. Although Indian Railways has been continuously upgrading its technology but it has been primarily done through technology transfer from abroad.

The spirit of ‘Make in India’ is also the ripe time for new initiatives to build foundation for research in Indian Railways in collaboration with premier academic institutions. Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu had announced in his Budget speech on 26th February 2015, the setting up of four Centres for Railway Research in select Universities. The MOU with University of Mumbai has already been signed in April 2015. Today the MOUs were signed with Indian Institutes of Technology at Kanpur, Madras and Roorkee, for setting up the Centres of Railway Research, fulfilling the Budget commitment in presence of Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu and Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha.

Specific areas of research in railway technology have been assigned to the respective IITs, with provision to identify more areas in the future. Shri Manoj Pande (ED/T&MPP) signed the MOU on behalf of Ministry of Railways while signatories from other side included prof. Amalendu Chandra, Dean Research & Development IIT Kanpur, Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian, Dean Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research, IIT Madras and Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Dean Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy, IIT Roorkee. Chairman Railway Board Shri A.K. Mital, Member Staff Shri Pradeep Kumar and other senior officers were present on this occasion.

The Minister of State for Railways, Shri Manoj Sinha witnessing the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) between Ministry of Railways and IIT/Kanpur, IIT/Roorkee and IIT/Madras for setting up Centres of Railway Research, in New Delhi on December 22, 2015. The Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital is also seen.

Speaking on the occasion Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu announced that with the signing of these MOUs, he is confident that these Centres for Railway Research would contribute immensely towards providing solutions for utilization of Railways’ assets in a more cost effective manner. The Government’s vision to see Indian Railways as one of the most progressive organizations in the world and also a net exporter of Railway technology to the world shall soon be realized. Shri Prabhu said that such partnership between railways and academic institutions will not only help railways and IITs but will also be helpful to the nation. He said it will also lead to spin off benefits to society. There is a need to implement new ideas on real time basis.

In his speech Minister of state for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha said that Indian Railways always believes in keeping itself abreast of latest technology. Referring to the problem of train movement during fog season specially in northern India, Shri Manoj Sinha called upon experts to work on a technique to find solution to this problem. He said that the technology to solve this problem should be practical and affordable.

In his address, Chairman Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital said that signing of the MOUs between Ministry of Railways and IITs at Kanpur, Madras & Roorkee for setting up of Centres for Railway Research is an important step. In order to achieve growth rate of 10% per annum in the coming years, it is necessary that railways make use of the technology advancements in the field of Railway related technology as this will be a major contributor in improving the quality of services. Government has laid high priority on giving boost to this vital sector as the Railways is considered engine of growth.

“There is one existing CRR in IIT Kharagpur. Now, there will be three more,” said Professor Krishnan Balasubramanian, dean, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR), IIT-Madras.  The CRR, Chennai will develop technologies for the Railways in areas that it already boasts of having significant expertise.

According to Balasubramanian, the research would include but not be limited to broader areas like smart railway technologies, safety technologies and increasing communications capabilities.  The CRR’s funds will be granted by the Indian Railways and according to the institute, there are 12 faculty members who have already written up projects for the Centre.  “We hope to have 20 faculty members and 30-40 students working on projects for the Centre within two years,” said Balasubramanian.

Students can opt for UG, PG and PhD programmes to be offered under the centre which will involve projects and course electives related to railway technology. At the signing event, railway board member Pradeep Kumar said subjects on railway technology did not figure in curriculum of academic institutions leading a lack of experts on railway technology. “In most institutions, there are either no professors having expertise on the subject or wherever there are a few with some knowledge on rail technology, they are out of sync with the latest technology and development for obvious lack of practical exposure/contact,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Member Staff Railway Board Shri Pradeep Kumar pointed out that subjects on railway technology do not figure in the curriculum of the academic institutions. The natural corollary has thus been the lack of experts on railway technology in the academia. In most of the Institutions, there are either no professors having expertise on the subject or wherever there are a few with some knowledge on rail technology, they are out of sync with the latest technology and development for obvious lack of practical exposure/contact. Moreover the major technological advances are coming from out of India. This initiative of the Indian Railways to involve these premier academic institutions by setting up Centres for Railway Research will remove this gap to some extent.

INDIAN RAILWAYS LOSS

UN APPRECIATION FOR DELHI METRO RAIL

DMRC gets appreciation for its Green Initiatives by UN at Paris

16 Dec, 2015  in Delhi Metro (DMRC) / Metro Rail Systems by rail

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New Delhi: The continuous efforts of DMRC regarding protection of global environment and sustainable Transport were appreciated by the United Nations at a high level meeting held on the side-lines of COP-21 at Paris, earlier this month.

The presentation given by Shri K.K. Saberwal, Director, Finance, DMRC in the meeting, organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, highlighted Delhi Metro’s efforts in addressing the issues relating to sustainability in urban transport.

According to the presentation, DMRC has been a frontrunner in quantifying climate change benefits and earning carbon credits from its projects on Regenerative Braking, Modal Shift and Energy Efficiency which have effectively reduced CO2 emissions annually. ‘The lead taken by DMRC in spearheading a metro revolution in India has resulted in metro systems being planned and executed in major Indian cities positively effecting the mitigation of the Green House Gases too’, Mr. Saberwal said during the presentation. He further demonstrated on DMRC’s Solar and other Green initiatives which was well received by the officials from the United Nations.

The UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST), includes leaders from the public and private sectors across world, including Dr. E. Sreedharan, Principal Advisor, DMRC, as its key member (Principal). The group is working to ensure that sustainable transport makes a meaningful contribution to the sustainable development of the planet and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed at the UN Sustainable Development Summit.

DMRC earlier named second-best Metro in the world

Notwithstanding its frequent glitches and overcrowding, the Delhi Metro had also emerged as the second most popular Metro network in the world, ahead of Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Singapore and others based on an online survey on customer satisfaction which has put the Delhi Metro among the top three Metro networks along with those in London and Bangkok.

The survey was conducted by Global Metro Bench-marking Groups NOVA and CoMET, to access overall customer satisfaction across 18 international Metro systems.

More than 41,000 respondents from around the world gave their feedback in this survey, links to which were widely distributed through the Internet from April 28 to May 25.

The Metro systems that participated in this survey were the Delhi Metro, Hong Kong MTR, London Underground, Metro De Madrid, Paris RATP, Metro De Sandiago, Singapore SMRT, Barcelona TMB, Brussels STIB, Bangkok BMCL, London DLR, Istanbul Ulasim, Kuala Lumpur Rapid PL, Metropolitano De Lisboa, Montreal STM, Newcastle Nexus, Metro Rio, and Toronto TTC.

According to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the respondents gave most priority to ‘availability’ of the Delhi Metro, while ‘reliability’ was the key factor in New Castle and Hong Kong.

“The survey was conducted as per the European Norm 13816 and the areas covered were availability, accessibility, information, reliability, customer care, comfort, crowding, and security,” Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.

SOLAR RAIL

Solar Power panels atop Train Coaches can save 11 Crore Litres of Diesel, reduce 3 Lakh Tons of Carbondioxide Emissions: IISc Scientists

28 Sep, 2015  in Energy Efficiency Practices & Green Energy concepts in Rail Operations / IITs/IIMs and other prominent Institutes Study & Research on Railway Sector / Indian Railways Renewable Energy Management Company by rail

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Chennai: Fitting a solar panel module on the roof of a railway coach can yield more than 7,200 units of electricity every year. If implemented on all 63,511 coaches in the Railways, 450 million units of power can be harnessed resulting in savings of 10.8 crore litres of diesel and reduction of carbon dioxide emission by approximately 3 lakh tonnes.

These are the findings of a pilot field research conducted by a team of scientists from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who travelled on a solar-panel fitted LHB (Linke Hoffman Busch) coach, a latest German technology bogie, which was attached to the Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Mysore Shatabdi and Chennai-Bangalore Double Decker Express trains on different days during June 24-July 2. The research was carried out to assess the feasibility and viability of generating electricity on a moving train from solar panels fitted on the rooftops of trains and the impact of factors like sunshine, train speed, number of halts, track curves, etc.

The pilot study was carried out in a ‘worst-case scenario’, i.e. during the onset of the Southwest monsoon on railway routes with low sunshine due to clouds or rainfall. Hence the electricity generation in places and seasons of harsher sunshine would give a greater yield, thereby projecting a figure bigger than what was arrived at in this study.

The coach could generate a maximum of 1.8 units of electricity per day, according to the research findings. This was extrapolated to a scenario where 24 such panels (12X2 module) could be retrofitted on the coach.

Thus, the resulting yield was assessed to be 18-20 units per day. The figures for yearly savings have been arrived at by assuming that the coach would be in operation for 365 days a year in the report, though the industry standard is 330 days.

The study was done on the Shatabdi Express as it has minimum stoppages; however, the team wanted to measure the power yield at lower speeds and hence the Double Decker Express train was chosen. The team also reported on a number of practical factors which contributed to fluctuations in electricity generation during all the trial runs. A static trial was also carried out at the Basin Bridge yard here to compare the parameters with the dynamic trial.

The study is significant in the context of the shift by the Railways from conventional coaches to German technology LHB rakes, which have better safety features. For operation of electrical appliances inside an LHB coach, power supply from the End on Generation (EOG) system (a generator) is needed, which consumes 0.25 litres of diesel to generate 1 unit of electricity. If every LHB rake is fitted with 12X2 Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) module, it would result in huge energy savings as well as cut environmental pollution caused by burning diesel.

The study findings could be used to manufacture and design many such Solar Rail Coaches on a large-scale which could significantly bring down the price of the solar panels and operational costs. In addition, with increased interest in the field of solar energy research, an advancement in technology raised the possibility of a yield greater than what was obtained during the field trials, resulting in greater diesel savings and an effective solution for reduced emissions. Railway officials noted that implementation of the project on a wider scale could provide a fillip to the domestic solar panel manufacturing industry in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Indian Railways to introduce 500 Solar Panel fitted Trains

10 Sep, 2015  in Energy Efficiency Practices & Green Energy concepts in Rail Operations / Indian Railways by rail

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A lot of latest innovations are being brought in the system with the directives of the Railway Minister who is determined to change the way the IR works

New Delhi: Indian Railways may introduce 500 trains with solar panel fitted coaches. Reports that the ministry of new and renewable energy could subsidize the project cost. The national transporter had run a pilot project with a specially outfitted coach earlier this year to study the feasibility of such an initiative.

The energy generated by the solar panels is likely to be used solely to meet illumination and air flow requirements in the bogies.

The report does not detail whether the project would also have storage mechanisms coupled with the panels to power devices in the absence of sunlight.

The railways already have a plan to install solar power capacity of 500 megawatts on rooftops of railway stations.

It is part of the organization’s target to meet 10 percent of its energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020.

And it has signed four agreements with the ministries of power and renewable energy toward this purpose last month.

On average, Indian Railways is seeing 5 percent increase in energy consumption annually. In the year ended March 31, the railways had a power bill of Rs12,500 crore.

Recently the railway network of The Netherlands, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, announced that it will be operating its entire rolling stock on wind power by 2018.

Weighty Challenge: Solar Powered Coaches will have to rework Coach Weight

5 Oct, 2015  in Eco Friendly Rail Systems & Green Railway concept / Energy Efficiency Practices & Green Energy concepts in Rail Operations / Indian Railways Renewable Energy Management Company / Integral Coach Factory, Perambur / Rail Research Bodies by rail

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Chennai: The Integral Coach Factory’s (ICF) trials, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, with solar powered coaches have been successful, but has now thrown open another weighty challenge.

The solar panels, while generating enough electricity to power a non-air-conditioned coach, are also creating a problem of adding to the deadweight of the coach. This means that coaches with the panels will have to be redesigned and engineered to ensure that the weight of the coach does not go up.

“We have received the report from IISc. We are taking a further call on it. The solar panels, however, add to the weight of the coach. Some framework is required to mount the panel on the roof. Without adding extra weight, we have to see how to bring power to the coach,” an ICF official told.

In June, the Railways rolled out its first solar panel-enabled coach that generated about 17 units of power in a day to enable the lighting system in the coach on the Rewari-Sitapur passenger train. The department has plans to generate about 1,000 MW in the next five years. Through this plan, the Railways hopes to reduce the amount of electricity it draws from the grid.

However, mass production of solar powered coaches will be viable when the issue of the deadweight is solved. “We can have batteries to store the solar power generated during the day, but that will require a large number of batteries which will once again add to the deadweight,” the official pointed out. “The panels can be embedded on the roof itself. But, it will require extensive design change in the roof. A commercially viable solution is required,” the official added.

Some framework is required to mount the panel on the roof

Critics on High Speed Rail project

Critics sing different tunes on India’s ambitious High Speed Rail project

14 Dec, 2015  in Headlines by rail

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The highlight of the three-day visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the signing of a pact for the the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-speed rail corridor, a massive project involving a cost of 98000 crore rupees. Both sides have invested time, energy and diplomatic resources in this showpiece project for which the Japanese are committed to advancing a loan of 8 billion dollars.

But before Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu borrows money for the project, there is an urgent need to review the faulty model that his ministry has prepared. If not, this expensive mistake will haunt India for a long time.

Japan has offered to participate in the California High-speed rail project by forming the Japan-California HSR Consortium which comprises of  Kawasaki Heavy Industries, East Japan Railway Company, Hitachi Ltd, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nippon Sharyo Ltd, Sumitomo Corporation etc to satisfy the Buy America laws. It is possible that a similar consortium may make an offer for an HSR system in India, and manufacture train-sets here, even though there is no compulsory ‘Make in India’ law, despite the Prime Minister’s call for it.

It must however be pointed out that the US has not sought any funding from Japan, even though many American states have not been able to tie-up funding arrangements for their HSR projects. The US also does not seek transfer of technology through these firms because General Electric has already formed a partnership with Chinese HSR train set manufacturers. It is only a matter of time before GE absorbs the technology and innovates on it.

India’s case is different. We are seeking loans to build the HSR but are ambivalent in our approach to acquiring technology and indigenous manufacture of high-end components in the traction chain. Essentially, India’s Ministry of Railways projects the image of a buyer of rolling stock rather than that of a technology seeker.

A country that needs low-cost loans, with a mix of treasury and commercial loans, will never hold vantage position when it comes to technology acquisition. A nation holding advanced rail technology is unlikely to offer more than low-tech and low value items like car bodies. It is unlikely to offer critical components in the traction chain. Even though the media releases and speculative reports contain HSR technology transfer, it is very doubtful that any hard bargain has been done about acquisition of HSR technology like what the South Koreans have done in the past. Korea could pull off complete technology transfer after nearly seven rounds of tough negotiations, because they bought technology with their own money. With a resident technology, Korea is able to produce almost all critical high tech and high value components of HSR train sets within their country and even compete against Germany, France and Japan. Even if we invite HSR technology holding nations to set up shop in India, the loan repayment liability and lack of control on high prices of rolling stock, signaling equipment and spares will adversely impact HSR’s operational success in India.

HSR idea began in 2001-2002

In India, the history of HSR started with an announcement made in the Rail Budget of 2000-2001 about high speed railways, which resulted in a general feasibility study done by Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES).

Serious efforts however were made in 2005-2007 by the Railway Board to get the project moving. Files were initiated for the first time in 2006 about one medium rail line route length (around 450 – 500 km) each in the Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern regions of India, in consultation with State Governments. This was not accepted by Lalu Yadav, the then Railway Minister who did not want to encourage High-speed rail projects, as he felt that these were infrastructure projects meant for the elite and middle-class passengers. In those days, the Prime Minister used to be given a presentation by the Railway Board on the broad outlines of the Railway Budget. In  January 2007, a separate presentation about HSR was made along with this budget presentation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In that presentation, a strategy for mobilising resources for HSR with a near zero net cost to the government was included.

The presentation was appreciated and accordingly another proposal was moved by the Board to include a formal announcement about HSR proposed routes in the Rail Budget of February 2007. This was resisted by the Railway Minister but the Board stood firm and insisted on including this announcement in the Budget. Finally an announcement was made about a proposal to prepare a pre-feasibilty study. In those days the Railway Boards in general showed a tough sense of professionalism.

The Board then started consultation process with the States and presentations about the HSR were given to Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries. Gujarat was the first State Government to offer support and offered to finance the study. Some States like Punjab, Kerala and Maharashtra too wanted to know about HSR and gave very valuable guidance. For example, the then Maharashtra Chief Minister was unhappy about the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR not covering important cities like Pune and Nasik and also Mumbai -Nagpur. Punjab supported an elevated alignment but expressed concern at land acquisitions by the National Highways Authority of India. Karnataka did not favour the proposed Chennai-Bangalore link but wanted a corridor to extend to Hubli-Dharwad to support their industrial expansion plans.

A proposal to create a National High Speed Rail Commission of India (NHSRCI) was unanimously approved by the Board for seeking clearance of the Council of Ministers. However, the Railway Minister did not clear the proposal.

Having shared this chequered history of roadblocks that the then Railway Board faced, I, as part of that Railway Board, must admit that we made a mistake in randomly choosing four regional HSR corridors of 450-500 km, instead of a national network as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisaged. His plan of a HSR Diamond Corridor is perhaps the most suitable intercity network model. This was exactly what India’s most illustrious railway expert, E Sreedharan advised when Dedicated Freight Corridors were being planned—he had suggested that India should opt for a Dedicated Higher Speed Passenger Corridor rather than a freight one.

A baffling change

What is baffling therefore is that the Ministry of Railways is now deviating from the Prime Minister’s Diamond Corridor concept. Instead, it is still clinging on to a regionally anchored but fragmented HSR  Network Model originally proposed in the Railway Budget of February 2007.

The proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR Corridor, which will involve huge borrowings from the Japanese, is going to be sandwiched between the existing conventional speed rail (CSR) corridor and the Dedicated Freight Corridor running through Gujarat to Mumbai. To confuse matters further, the Railway Ministry is preparing an expensive upgrade of the Conventional Speed Rail corridor from the present 130 KMPH to 160-180 KMPH, which will be in direct competition to the new HSR corridor, that too on the same alignment. The conventional speed rail corridor will lose its premium passenger segment to HSR, and its freight to DFC. It will be left with nothing but low revenue commuter passenger services. In addition, more competition can also be expected from the expressways and coastal passenger ferries also being promoted alongside. The Ministry could have avoided these multiple investments in parallel corridors.

One excellent alternative would have been to re-fix the alignment of the HSR from Ahmedabad to the upcoming super city Dholera in Gujarat and from there to Surat, using the proposed Kalpasar project on the Gulf of Khambat. From Surat it can use one of the narrow gauge corridors and reach Nasik, Thane and Navi-Mumbai before reaching across to Mumbai.

The purpose of creating an HSR Corridor is not to simply showcase speedy travel. The main takeaway must be stringing in 10 other cities and ushering in development along the way. If the Ministry goes ahead with its plan, this faulty rail network planning model – reminiscent of the “Railway Mania” in the US in the early 20th century — is going to be an albatross.

States planning their own networks

The need of the hour is to create a regulatory authority to independently plan an HSR Diamond Corridor network, which will draft a policy and also set standards. Otherwise, the creation of fragmented medium-distance HSR corridors will trigger demands from other regions and States. The Kerala HSR Corporation has already gone far ahead with its own corridor with a feasibility report, which has envisaged a total investment of Rs 65000 crore, which, at Rs 151 crore per km, is lower than the Mumbai-Ahmedabad figure of Rs 200 crore per annum.

The government should shun the diffidence and tokenism of showcasing one medium distance HSR corridor, built almost entirely on borrowed money as a tiny piece of modern infrastructure. Go the whole hog for a HSR passenger corridor network.

The government should also source funding from within India. Funding can be sourced from India. Make it the common man’s cherished project and raise funds from within India—several innovation methods can be used for this. The most critical issue is making the HSR affordable for the common man. There is a big gap between the yield per seat/km sold by low cost airlines and that of the Indian Railways; this gap can be filled by the High-speed rail.

If giant HSR projects, backed by external commercial borrowings are pushed through Cabinet decisions, without consulting the states, without doing extensive ground work, and without going for simple and straightforward open public consultation, they will certainly end up facing public resistance.