The emphasis of the Railway Budget 2015 is on promoting research in railways. Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO) has been asked to develop systems to prevent fire in coaches and prevent coaches from telescoping into each other during accidents. As of now, there is no technology with the railways to deal with on-board fire.
The RDSO has been given a bigger role to collaborate with institutes of repute to make train travel a better and safer experience. Efforts in this direction have started already. Recently, RDSO held a meeting with experts from the Kanpur, Delhi, Bombay, Madras, and Kharagpur IITs, the Department of Science and Technology, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Indian Space Research Organisation to apprise them of the pending RDSO projects and seek their expertise.
The RDSO will identify specific projects like gate warning signals, fire control measures and reducing sound of power-cars and seek cooperation from technical and environmental institutes. In the next six months, RDSO has to make available to the railway ministry a design of vacuum toilets similar to modern aircraft toilets.
The Railways aim to strengthen RDSO into an organization of excellence for applied research. Two projects of RDSO, Train Protection Warning System and Train Collision Avoidance System, will be installed on select routes at the earliest. RDSO has finished trials for the projects. RDSO has also conducted trials for high speed (160kmph) trains. “We are working with ISRO on warning systems at unmanned level crossings” said RDSO Executive Director (Administration), AK Mathur.
