The Indian Railways successfully tested a path-breaking technology called Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), about 150 km from Hyderabad, on Tuesday.
The TCAS technology, based on a combination of GPS and Radio Frequency enabled technology, applies brakes without the intervention of the loco (train) pilots once it detects another locomotive on the move or stationary on the same track and avoids collision. The technology includes installation of some electronic gadgets on the trains, in the stations and along the tracks.
A host of railway officials led by Chairman of the Railway Board Vinay Mittal, Member (Electrical) Kul Bhushan and Director General of the Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow, V. Ramachandran watched the successful trial of the TCAS. The technology is jointly developed by RDSO of the Railways and Hyderabad-based private firm HBL Power Systems Ltd.
The test was conducted by running two trains, fitted with modified and most advanced TCAS technology equipment, in the opposite directions on the same track at 60 kmph and with a train coming from behind into a stationary one between Mantatti and Navandgi stations.
Both the trains screeched to a halt at a distance of about 200 metres as the officials watched the moment with bated breath. Smiles broke out as the efficacy of the new technology proved in the trial. Interestingly, all the senior railway officials were sitting in the moving train which approached the stationary one from behind.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Mittal said: “It is a path-breaking technology and we will complete all the trials within a year. The TCAS has more capabilities than the technologies being used in many advanced countries.” The test was absolutely successful, he said in joy. Mr. Ramachandran said the technology with some limited options would be introduced in some sections within six months.
Sources stated that the TCAS would not only help avoid collisions due to human errors in signalling and invisibility of signals due to heavy rain or fog, but alerts about fire on trains and warns about damage to the tracks during natural calamities or sabotage.
Keywords: Train Collision Avoidance System, T-CAS, Navandgi, Mantatti, Ranga Reddy district, Research, Design & Standards Organisation, railway safety
Path-breaking technology ? This technology was already developed by Konkan Railway years ago. Why they took so long time to get another version of that ?
They were sleeping all these years since 1947 and finally woke up.
Yes this is really an achievement in the part of Indian Railway. But it
is too much to consider it as a "path breaking technology". Also we need
to check the all the pros and cons before implementing.
How is it different from ACD( anti collision devise developed by Konakan
railway?
How will this system know if the trains are on the same track? what about adjacent tracks? what about interchanges? Have they tested this thoroughly enough so not to trigger false alarms? You can't test two or three trains on a single track and declare the system is successful.
Fantastic, it saves lot of life.
Hopefully the system will work effectively in all weather conditions and will prove an effective tool to safeguard hundreds of lives that we lose during head-on/rear-end train collisions.
Indian rail being the largest network in world constantly requires to work on its problems like maintenance of tracks to avoid derails which again causes loss of lives.
This is great! Technology should be used to avoid these needless
accidents! But why does it take 5+ years to bring this to service?
Congratulations. It may help the railways to increase the running speed.
At the same time the GS installed in these machines should help in monitoring the real time position of all locomotives like in case of
aircrafts. The may be helpful in increasing the ontime performance.
Congratulations to Indian Railways !! Hopefully our trains will be much safer in near future... there is need to make them cleaner as well.. !! :)
great news!! this needs to be put to use ASAP
60 km/hr speed for anti collision test ? yes, for the first test its fine. we should test it for high speed which is max to be on safer side. i'll say this is a good start but it is not done
Good and necessary
A welcome first step though belated .. Hope it gets into all Indian
trains quickly.
Do we know that the trains will NOT come to a halt if the trains are in
adjacent tracks? I hope they also conduct an experiment to test that.
Otherwise, we are going to see a lot of trains come to screeching halt,
as they move (safely) in adjacent tracks but opposite directions
Awesome! Go India Go!
"It’s a path-breaking technology". Is it ? Really ? . The most basic of the anti-mishap train technologies and we call it pathbreaking. I have had my dose of joke for the day. Thank you Mr. Mittal .
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