New 'Electric Loco in Motion Simulator' at Vijayawada

Vijayawada, July 15 (UNI) 'Electric Loco in Motion Simulator', a 12 crore rupees project was inaugurated here at Electric Traction Training Centre (ETTC) by Railway Board member Ramesh Chandra.

Speaking on the occasion yesterday, Mr Chandra called upon the trainees of the ETTC to be alert and react fast as per the situation.

He assured welfare schemes for trainee pilots and their families.

Mr Chandra announced an award of Rs 50,000 for the ETTC and an amount of Rs 5,000 for the staff, maintaining the simulator.

South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager D N Mathur said the ETTC must utilise the world class facilities of the simulator, which was on par with aircraft pilot training, to mould successful professionals.

The railways had launched specialised training on electric loco simulator for train drivers, to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge.

The ETTC will impart training to assistant driver recruits on the state-of-the-art simulator here from today.

Fitted with computer-generated motion images, a man-machine interface, a host of computers and a video camera to capture the movements of the driver, the simulator looks like a sophisticated electric locomotive, which makes a driver feel that he was actually driving a train on a specified route.

The trainee would be tested in the simulator and at the end of each session, the driver gets a report on his performance.

Under the Simulators for Indian Railways (SIMIR) project, the Central Organisation for the modernisation of workshops had procured the equipment from France-based Corys company at a cost of 12 crore rupees.

Training for the new entrants would be given for six days on the simulator and seniors would be attending a two-day refresher course once in every three years, incharge of the project G V Mallikarjuna Rao said.

UNI CS/VKR AJ SRS BD0422