Indian Railways has chalked out a plan to automate most processes in production and maintenance of rolling stock during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan starting April 1, 2012 to prevent human errors in the national transporter?s operations.
The move has been triggered by frequent failure of rolling stock that endangers lives and goods. The national transporter has estimated a total cost of R5,000 crore on modernisation of six production units and 44 workshops during the Plan.
The finance department of the Railways has already sanctioned more than R1,000 crore as expenditure on installing new machines and increasing capacity at the factories.
The modernisation budget for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan shows a significant rise when compared to the expenditure of R2,360 crore in last four years.
?The overall budget for the purpose is tentative and can be increased depending on the needs during implementation of the plan,? a senior official in the railway ministry told FE.
Under the Plan, the Railways will replace its ageing machinery, use laser technology in cutting and measuring processes, install high-capacity cranes and switch to automated welding procedures.
It has also planned awarding comprehensive annual maintenance contracts (CAMCs) of high-value machines as part of the total purchase order. The CAMC concept is currently being used for locomotive simulators.
?There are also plans for modernisation and augmentation of existing training centres using advance training simulators to enhance operational skills of loco pilots,? Railways? spokesperson Anil Kumar Saxena said in reply to an emailed questionnaire.
The modernisation of railways production units has to be seen in the light of frequent failure of rolling stock due to various reasons, including faulty manufacturing. The Railways has seen over 2,000 accidents in last nine years, half of which were caused due to derailment ? a common result of a combination of failure of rolling stock and faulty tracks.
The upgrade of machinery would improve production quality of rolling stock and could prevent loss of R100 crore a year currently being suffered by the Railways due to accidents.
