ACD Indian Railways

Now, Railways for CBI to probe Sainthia collision Expressindia.com - Raghvendra Rao - ‎Jul 27, 2010‎ ... Railways Corporation Ltd (KRCL) for a meeting to discuss the ministry's failure to implement the Anti-Collision Device (ACD) across the Indian Railways ... Oneindia Railways sits on ACD, trains continue to collide IBNLive.com - ‎Jul 23, 2010‎ New Delhi: A combination of clash of interests, technology and sheer political unwillingness has left trains on collision course as Indian Railways has ... Railways to install anti-collision devices Oneindia all 8 news articles » Konkan Railway has patent on anti-crash device Times of India - ‎Jul 19, 2010‎ This system is used all over the Indian Railways as well as on CR and WR, said senior CR officials. The pilot project developed by KRCL was commissioned in ... Anti-collision device could have averted latest train accident Sify all 19 news articles » Device that could have saved lives Calcutta Telegraph - ‎Jul 19, 2010‎ G. Raghuram, the Indian Railways chair professor at IIM Ahmedabad, endorsed the use of ACDs. The devices constantly monitor moving units using radio ... Video: Mamta: My identity is not only as Railway Minister NewsX Signal systems need an upgrade Asian Age all 504 news articles » Runaway train rams another in West Bengal, 61 dead Hindustan Times - ‎Jul 19, 2010‎ Monday's accident emphasized the need of anti-collision devices (ACD) on all the 19000 trains that Indian Railways ply across the country every day. Video: Train accident in West Bengal NewsX Wikipedia: Sainthia train collision all 2,771 news articles » Inventor of 'Raksha Kavach' upset with Railways Express Buzz - ‎Jul 21, 2010‎ NEW DELHI: Rajaram Bojji, former managing director of Konkan Railway Corporation, who developed the anti-collision device (ACD) which might have saved 60 ... Column : Preventing rail accidents Financial Express - ‎Jul 20, 2010‎ Indian Railways, over 63000 km long, is the world's fourth largest network behind the US, Russia and China. Safety is a vital aspect for any mode of ... Too many accidents, rlys must learn safety lesson: Ex-officials Times of India all 2 news articles »

India's Ant-collision Device

Generic Definition:

Anti-collision non-signal devices (ACD) are intelligent rugged microprocessors to self determine location and status when mobile on a railway and static ACDs monitor vulnerable locations like stations, gates, slopes, bridges, securely inter communicate within the range of distance required to reduce speeds of moving units to assure safety against dangerous collision or accidents, keeping a log, independent of signals and human inputs, creating an ever present Raksha Kavach, protective bubble.

Descriptive Definition for ACD ( a non-signal Anti-collision Device)

ACD is a device comprising of a high speed microprocessor integrated with secure digital radio communication modem, a GPS, an interface with braking system and odometer of the locomotive in case of Loco ACD, no such interface with braking or odometer but portable unit is for Guard ACD , interfaced with gates but no GPS in case of manned gate ACD, interfaced with sirens and flashlights for unmanned Gate ACD, with track circuit occupation circuit in case of station ACD as needed, but no GPS for station ACD, with appropriate field monitoring transducers for vulnerable location ACD, having on board flash memory to log events, loaded with software for on board data collection and intelligent analysis to decide action in real time, the entire unit ruggedized to stand severe climatic , dusty vibratory environment. All such ACDs within a range of twice the braking distance required for a moving Loco or EMU or DEMU inter communicate with each other and form a network, RAKSHA KAVACH, a non-signal system, assuring each other’s safety by taking action automatically without human inputs, to reduce the speeds of moving units, and stop if necessary, if any dangerous situation is perceived, in any part of railway network.

Anti-collision device could have averted latest train accident

By Shudip Talukdar

New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) Even as the latest rail accident claimed 60 lives and injured 150 people in West Bengal, the railway ministry is still prevaricating over installing anti-collision devices (ACDs) on its trains.

This year, 13 accidents, including the latest one, have claimed scores of lives, and the impact at Sainthia station in Birbhum Monday was so severe that the top of one of the coaches rammed into the foot overbridge across the platform.

Officials say the ACD, designed and developed by former Konkan Railway managing director B. Rajaram, has a success rate of 99.9 percent in preventing collisions after it was commissioned by the Konkan Railway and the Northeast Frontier Railway.

Incidentally, it also had the support of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in her earlier stint at Rail Bhavan here.

"Its implementation is being delayed over the years by successive revision of norms by the Railway Board even though the technology met the conditions successfully in every instance," Rajaram, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, told IANS.

Rajaram raised this issue with Banerjee in a letter written April 5 this year, drawing her attention to the money earmarked for the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), the ministry's apex research body.

"Indian Railway never produced a world class technology since independence. We spend so much of funds on RDSO, but we have nothing innovative of world class to export from RDSO or even to be used on Indian Railways," he said.

"We just import. RDSO is used to assist to import."

The letter said the device named "Raksha Kavach" was developed indigenously and was even singled out from the millions of global patents and praised as a unique safety system by the World Intellectual Property Office in Geneva.

"But the multinational companies which have much to lose if ACD comes in operation, have consistenly been fighting a proxy technology war using our own retired and even working railway officers."

He went on to say that at every stage of development, hurdles were raised and said its implementation in the Northeast Frontier Railway would have been blocked but for former railway minister and present Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Then Railway Board chairman K.C. Jena had stated that ACDs were to be installed in the southern zones by 2009 before its phase-wise implementation in all railway zones.

The ACD pilot project was assigned to the Northeast Frontier Railway for thorough testing, considered to be among the most challenging zones for railway safety and plagued by erratic power supplies and faulty signalling.

"Railway experts, doubting if the technology will work under highly adverse conditions prevailing in Northeast Frontier Railway, said if the ACD showed results it will succeed anywhere in the world. Its success silenced its critics," Rajaram said.

The ACD, showcased by National Geographic channel, detects the presence of two trains approaching each other, or even when a speeding train moves towards a stationary train on the same track, bringing them to an immediate halt before possible collision.

"The ACDs fill up gaps of what existing systems cannot do, like averting collisions even in block sections (the distance between two stations beyond the range of signals) and in foggy weather when signals are not visible," said Rajaram.

(Shudip Talukdar can be contacted at shudip.t@ians.in)