Automatic train protection system on the anvil, says official

The Railways is planning to cover its entire network of 68,000 route km with the automatic train protection system in a phased manner, chairman of the railway board Vinod Kumar Yadav said here on Sunday. He said this during the 62nd annual day of Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunication (IRISET).

As a pilot project, he said, the system would be implemented on 650 route km of the golden quadrilateral corridor. The automatic train protection system has been introduced all over the world, he said, "...it's only in India that we are still dependent on the driver to see the signal and if the driver does any mistake that culminates into an accident. The government of India, in principle, has decided that we will go for the system on the entire 68,000 route km".

Yadav said the signal and telecommunications department was going to play a vital role in the speeding up of services and ensuring safety in future. He said training was important for any organisation and the role of IRISET in imparting the modern technology to the staff and managers was crucial for the railways.

He added that the railways was planning to provide world-class training facilities to all its centralised training institutes. Telangana chief secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi called upon the trainees of the institute to acquire sound technical knowledge for achieving optimal results. General manager of South Central Railway Gajanan Mallya said the IRISET curriculum was well-designed in its training modules to make the complex signalling and telecommunication sector simple for the benefit of trainees.

Railway board member (Signal & Telecom) Pradeep Kumar andits financial commissioner Manjula Rangarajan also spoke. PTI VVK NVG NVG.