The Indian Railways has embarked on a major mechanisation drive to make track-laying and maintenance work completely machine-driven, removing the need for any human interface, including patrolling.
The procurement tenders have already being issued for purchasing automatic and improved versions of various machines, said Railway Board’s Member (Engineering) Vishwesh Chaube here on Friday.
Modern high output ballast cleaning machines and 96 rail-borne maintenance vehicles are being procured, while a fleet of 916 track machines and rail inspection vehicles would be doubled to cover the entire network in three years. The complete mechanisation with about 2,850 machines would be done by 2024, he said.
Mr. Chaube was addressing a two-day international seminar on ‘Innovations and Technologies for Fast-Paced Constructions’ organised by The Institution of Permanent Way Engineers at HICC in Madhapur.
Accepting that the Indian Railways could not keep pace with the growing transportation demands, he attributed it to chronic under-investment on infrastructure. But, a large-capacity enhancement work like doubling, tripling and quadrupling of lines were sanctioned in the last five years for up to 15,000 km at an estimated cost of ₹1.2 lakh crore to improve the average speeds on trunk routes.
Apart from the latest machines to scan for track fractures, seven state-of-the-art track recording machines are being inducted into the existing fleet. Since 160 kmph speed would not allow manual inspections or patrolling due to safety issues, various other machines to monitor tracks, coaches, ballast and flood at bridges are undergoing trials, said the RB Member.
The seminar is being held after 17 years in SCR, said K.V. Sivaprasad, Principal Chief Engineer, adding that 35 technical papers were going to be presented at the event. S.N. Agarwal, Member-Staff RB, and senior official Rakesh Goyal also spoke.
