Arjun unveils Technology Mission on Railway Safety

New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh today unveiled the Technology Mission on Railway Safety, recalling Jawaharlal Nehru's crusade for total technological self-reliance.

''Today we are reaping technological fruits of the institutions created by Nehruji within 20 years of the Independence,''Mr Singh after switching on the Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation(SIMRAN) device which gives information on the location, direction, speed and movement of a train.

SIMRAN and other techologies have been jointly developed by the Indian Institute of Technology and Research Design and Standards Organisation(RDSO) of Lucknow.

The Minister said it was Nehru who created institutions like IITs and IIMs which have played a crucial role in reducing the country's dependence on foreign technology.

''Today we have an army of scientists and technocrats who have developed techologies which suit the country's conditions and the pockets of its people,'' he said.

He said had India wanted, it would have joined any of the super power blocs after independence and got a lot of things it wanted from them, but Nehru chose the harder path to give make the country self-reliant in the long run.

Mr Singh said saftey comes first when one talks about Railway's progress. That was the reason the Ministry has embarked on the mission for Railway Saftey, he added and congratulated the engineers and scientists for doing a ''wonderful job'' in this field.

Speaking on this occasion, Minister of State for Railways R Velu asked the authorities to start a separate course of Railway engineering in IITs.

He said the effort made by the RDSO and IIT, Kanpur in developing the safety technologies was commendable and called for maintaing the tempo fo their effort.

Earlier, Director IIT, Kanpur Prof SK Dhande made a powerpoint presentation on the set of technologies for Railway safety developed under the Mission sponsored by the HRD Ministry.

Besides SIMRAN, they include Trackside Bogie Monitoring System, Derailment Detection Device, On Board Diagnostics, Sensors for Hot Boxes and Hot Wheels, Measuring Wheel Technology, Wheels and Axle of Improved Metallurgy, Corrosion Prevention of Rails, Environment Friendly Coach Toilet Discharge System,Improved Rail Fastening, Rail Flaw detection Instrumentation and Fog Vision Instrumentation.

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