Indian Railways growth engine of India: International Seminar on Heavy Haul Operations

Priyanka Singh| Dec 7, 2016, 

LUCKNOW: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), ministry of railways, supported by Lucknow Rail Metro Corporation (LMRC) with Japan as its partner country, organised its final international technical seminar at the second edition of InnoRail India 2016 on December 3 at RSDO, Lucknow.

The ultimate objective of the seminar was to bring along the technical experts from different nations, RDSO, ministry of railways, industries under one roof on a common platform to address the needs of heavy haul operations in Indian railways.

Present at the seminar, J S Sondhi, additional director general, Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) commenced the session by giving the the participants an opportunity to put forward their opinions on how heavy haul will become operational in Indian Railways. He made the participants to understand the vitality of building a competitive manufacturing environment in India for new technology and spares for heavy haul.

H S Pannu, former director general, RDSO praised the development in railway technology in countries like China and South Korea and emphasised how Indian railways and industries can draw inspiration from them. He also shared that how learning and technological capability development, started in 2006 by Indian Railways resulted in an increased output.

Lucknow Metro which has recently commenced its trial on December 1 also participated in the seminar. Mahendra Kumar, Director- Rolling Stocks and System, LMRC Limited focused on the use of sustainable technologies and said, "Energy is one of the prime necessity for any sustainable project so it should be taken care of from the very beginning as it consumes about 50 -60 % of the total cost". He also mentioned that the technologies used should be environment friendly which would further contribute to sustainable development.

PK Srivastava, additional municipal commissioner of Lucknow congratulated CII for conducting an informative seminar where all the international participants from across the globe came forward to express their views, ideas and designs in the railway sector. He added that seeing the success of this international conference, he would once again attend the third edition of InnoRail India 2016 which would be conducted from December6 to 8, 2018.

The conference threw spotlight on the importance of heavy haul operations in Indian Railway and using the innovative technology in the right direction. The seminar also marked the presence of other eminent speakers from ABB Switzerland, NRE India, REDSA Poland, L&T and was attended by over 150 participants from India and overseas.