The Railways are still struggling to find a way to beat the fog that has wrought havoc on the operation of trains this winter too, in the north of the country.
Unlike last year when train collisions caused by the fog claimed several lives, there has been no accident so far this year. But the fog led to the cancellation of almost 100 trains, diversion of as many and short termination of 50 others in the past 10 days. This came at a time when the Railways bore the brunt of the Gujjar agitation for job reservation that resulted in the cancellation of at least 75 trains, short termination of 40 and diversion of 180 trains.
After last year's bad experience, the Railways promised to put an effective mechanism in place. But their efforts did not yield any result. In August last, the Railways expected to fit all locomotives running in the fog-affected areas with a reliable GPS-based safety device. They intended to buy 1,400 pieces at an estimated cost of Rs.5 crore. The prototype submitted by one supplier failed to meet the technical requirements; 37 devices of another supplier are still being tested in the Ambala division of Northern Railway.
The Railways are yet to fulfil another promise: an anti-collision device, which is not meant to tackle foggy weather but useful in averting collisions, of which there were many last winter.
Being developed by the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited, this device has been commissioned as a pilot project in Northeast Frontier Railway, but its viability on electrified and multiple lines and the automatic signal system is still being tested.
The first test conducted in Southern Railway brought to the fore several drawbacks. KRCL managing director Bhanu Tayal is hopeful that the second test to be completed by January-end will be satisfactory.
To prevent over-speeding and signal jumping, a train protection warning system is on trial. The Railways intend to implement the Rs.600-crore system on high-density networks and automatic signalling routes in Eastern, North Central, Southern, South Eastern and Western Railways, covering 895 km. It is not expected to be commissioned till 2012.
Even if all these equipment are deployed over a period of time, officials feel that too many gadgets may distract the driver's attention, especially those who run superfast trains that pass the signal post sometimes at a gap of less than 30 seconds.
