High-level panel for high speed lines and capacity increase in Rly

New Delhi, Sep 12 (UNI) The high-level Advisory Committee has stressed upon the need for Indian Railways to go in quickly for high-speed lines and also to increase speed and capacities on the existing lines for which the Committee members felt there was still scope.

At a meeting held here recently, the Committee deliberated on the requirement of investments on the Railways, the various project implementation challenges and also the need for high speed passenger travel, an official release here said.

The Committee, which has distinguished former railwaymen of the level of Chairman and Members of the Board, was set up with the idea of deliberating on future strategies of the Railways.

The important points emerged from the meeting of the Committee were (i) a mechanism to monitor and ensure optimization of road and railway transport (ii) quick action on the provision of ROBs/RUBs and handling the problem of level crossings, particularly on the dedicated freight corridor routes, (iii) PPP in the Railway sector in general is difficult and it may involve the Railways sharing its earnings with the concessionaire, (iv) Railways should seek increased budgetary support from the Government, in view of its important role as an environment-friendly means of transport, (v) New design of coaches, like LHB, should be proliferated.

The other points were (vi) evolving a policy whereby there can be increased participation in projects by State Governments, (VII) Double decker coaching stock should be used on busy sectors, (viii) Railways should, in the context of the huge increase in freight traffic, evolve a strategy for substantially increasing the speeds of goods trains, (ix) Railways should develop new Greenfield locations preferably within the city limits for big passenger stations, if need be, using railway land which is not presently being put to optimum use, (x) Railways should find ways to increase the Engine-on-Load system of working, and (xi) there should be more efforts to have logistics integration.

With the continued high growth in the Rail Sector during the past few years, Indian Railways is facing many new challenges. Therefore, along with the new initiatives that have been taken, Railways have recognized that there is need to constantly innovate and bring about changes.

For these, new concepts and ideas have to be tried out. This is so because conventional practices would not always give the necessary momentum to handle growth and massive change.

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