Indian delegation visits China's railway facilities

New Delhi, Nov 8: China has expressed willingness to share its expertise and technology with Indian Railways in developing world class stations, double stack container trains, logistics parks and high speed suburban trains.

The assurance was given to a high-level delegation of Indian Railways, led by Railway Board Chairman K C Jena, which visited China recently to learn about the functioning of the railway system there.

The delegation, which included Mrs Sudha Chobe, Financial Commissioner, Railway Board, and other senior railway officials, held discussions with Chinese Railway Minister Liu Zhijun and other officials.

A ministry official said today that China expressed its willingness to cooperate with Indian Railways on any area of interest to it.

''The visit exposed the delegation to various types of developments that have taken place in the Chinese Railway, such as world class stations, double stack container operation and heavy haul operations which will be of immense help in formulating plans of development of Indian Railways,'' he said.

The delegation visited Nanjing and Shanghai South and had on board experience of the high-speed EMU train running between Shangai and Nanjing. It also visited container operation areas with ISO containers measuring eight-and-a-half and nine-and-a-half feet as also a multi-modal logistics park near Shanghai.

In particular, the Indian delegation evinced keen interest in a freight station on the Datong-Qinhuangdao heavy haul line for coal traffic where trains up to 20,000 tonnes are being hauled using 'twin-bo-bo' electric engines of 12,000 HP.

The team also saw the automatic train examination systems installed at this station where the defects in a freight train are detected automatically by machines installed on the track and noted in the computerised control centre for attention by engineers.

UNI