Goa to host International Railway Safety Conference

New Delhi, Sept 27 (UNI) Over 150 railway safety experts, both from India and abroad, will share their experiences and expertise at the International Railway Safety Conference (IRSC) in Goa -- the first time in India -- to be held during October 1-5.

To be hosted by Indian Railways and Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd, the conference will provide a platform to the railway safety practitioners and other experts to exchange global experiences and best practices on ''Emerging Dimensions for Railway Safety''.

Minister of State for Railways R.Velu will inaugurate the conference, to be attended by representatives from around 20 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Germany and the UK.

Mr V N Mathur, Member Traffic, Railway Board will also be present among others at the inaugural function on October one.

International Railway Safety Conference is an annual event attended by railway safety managers, safety regulators and accident investigating agencies from all over the world.

It provides a platform to the delegates from various international railway systems to exchange ideas and information on the current safety issues faced by them.

The first IRSC was hosted by East Japan Railway in 1990 in Tokyo, Japan and since then, this has been held every year by some railway or the other but it is for the first time that it is being held in India.

Indian Railways' sustained efforts in the recent past have resulted in more than 50 per cent reduction in consequential train accidents which have come down from 0.65 accidents per million train kilometers in 2001-02 to 0.23 in 2006-07.

''This conference offers immense opportunities to the world railway systems to help formulate future possibilities,'' a ministry official said today.

Thirty-one technical papers will be presented during the conference to specifically dwell upon subjects like 'Integration of Safety Management in Development Planning', 'Impact of Safety Enhancement Systems and Diagnostic Technologies on Human Performance', 'Emerging Trends on Mitigation of Third Party Hazard' and 'Trends and Practices of Safety Regulation and Accident Investigation'.

UNI