Fate of 25 rail safety projects hangs in balance

KANPUR: The fate of key projects related to railway safety hangs in balance due to the inordinate delay in release of funds.

In most cases, the stipulated duration for the completion of prototype models of the project has ended.

Railway safety projects were to be carried out under the Technology Mission for Indian railway (TMIR) but the works still await funding.

TMIR chairman and senior faculty at IIT-Kanpur N Vyas said 25 research projects related to train safety were under consideration.

“The roadmap for these projects is complete and three were also allocated to different institutes,” he said.

“Work on these projects could not be carried out for the want of funds. We hope funds would be made available soon,” Vyas added. In the 2015 Rail Budge t, an amount of Rs 300 crore was allocated for the development of latest technologies for safe train navigation and other related matters. The fund was released in 2017 but the proposed meeting of the departments concerned to sign the MoU could not be held.

Among the most important projects was the system for running trains despite dense fog. The project had to be developed by the IIT-K within nine months with a budget of Rs 5 crore.

Development of rail tracks to facilitate high-speed train with a total outlay of Rs 2.5 crore had to be carried out by IIT-Khargapur.

IIT-Delhi, in association with IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Guwhati, had to develop an alert system for trains which could inform in advance about any technical snag in track or train bogies.