City-based Efftronics Systems Pvt. Ltd. has developed the country's first-ever solid state block instrument that is a microcomputer-supported electronic equipment approved for use in railway signalling.
The Lucknow-based Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Indian Railways approved the product. The instrument is European Committee for Electromechanical Standardisation-compliant for rail safety. It is not supposed to fail even once in unsafe running condition in less than 1.15 lakh years as per the highest European safety integrity level SIL-4.
However, the Efftronics instrument succeeded in ensuring safety for 1.7 lakh years during testing, company managing director D. Rama Krishna told reporters.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, he said that Efftronics was the only firm to get the approval for this kind of an instrument. The operational time of solid state block instrument was hardly 3 seconds compared to 3 minutes of the eletro-mechanical equipment being used by the Railways.
It helps in running more number of trains on the same track. The existing block instruments are designed using mechanical parts, which require frequent maintenance.
“This instrument gives stress-free operational environment with smooth push buttons,” he explained.
The Efftronics was working on the project for the last nine years spending Rs.7 crore.
The safety worthiness of the instrument was assessed by the Centre for Knowledge Based Systems, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and the Electronics Regional Test Laboratory (East), Kolkata. In all, 14,000 pages of software and 5,000 pages of hardware were submitted to these independent agencies for assessment, he said. The company conducted parallel field trials and standalone trials.
Field tests
“The equipment has been kept parallel to the existing system and monitored under real operating conditions since 2006 at Bhimadole, Pulla, Kovvur, and Godavari stations,” he said.
A 90-day standalone trial was conducted by keeping it in control of the signalling system by disconnecting the existing one. The RDSO was satisfied with the performance of the instrument, he added. Efftronics director B. Sambi Reddy and executive manager S.R.T. Rama Samy spoke.
