Dedicated railway fair, India Rail Tech, gets under way

New Delhi, Sep 20 (UNI) Billed as the first ever dedicated trade fair on Indian Railways, a three-day India Rail Tech exhibition got underway here today with nearly a hundred companies, including Siemens, Larsen and Toubro and Jindal Steel and Power, showcasing their high-end technologies to meet the modernisation requirements of the railways.

Flagging off the event, Mr Sanjeev Lohiya, Director (Urban Transport) in the Urban Development Ministry, hoped that the exhibition would provide a platform to the participating companies to display their latest technologies and cost-effective solutions for developing a modern infrastructure of Indian Railways.

Organised by the Bangalore-based Expoworld, the event is aimed at catalysing the Railway Ministry's ambitious modernisation plan over the next five years, which is pegged at a stupendous Rs one lakh crore.

''It is a gigantic investment plan by any yardstick and the companies will be keen to grab a major slice of this ambitious modernisation investment,'' said Mr Sandeep Bekal, Convenor of India Rail Tech exhibition.

Besides Siemens, Jindal and L&T, the companies from Germany, Russia, Japan and the Gulf countries are displaying their technologies and products in a big way.

The portfolio of the transportation division of Siemens includes solutions for rail automation, railway electrification, light and heavy rail vehicles, turnkey projects and integrated services.

''We have developed an anti-collision device, which is much superior to the one created by Konkna Railway,'' said Mr V B Parulekar, Director, Managing Board, Siemens.

The Bahrain-based BFGhas put on offer a fully automated toilet system that is now currently fitted into the high-speed trains in France.

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