Railways to deploy new technology for inspecting tracks

In order to ensure smooth drive for high speed trains, railways is acquiring contactless sensor cars which will run on rails for detecting track defects.

The contactless sensor system will help check track parametres of a high speed route in a faster and effective way, said a senior railway official.

While one contactless sensor car has already been imported, two others are to be inducted soon, said the official.

However, the new contactless sensor car has not been commissioned yet as it is on a trial run.

The current inspection system is through physical contact with the track.

"The new system will be contactless as it is equipped with laser beam technology," said the official. "The technology is successfully operational in advanced countries," he added.

While there is a plan to increase the speed of Rajdhani in certain routes to 150 km per hour, speed of other important trains are also to be increased in a phased manner.

Besides the Dedicated Freight Corridors where goods train would travel in higher speed, railways also have plans for high speed corridors for faster overnight travel between Metro cities.

The contactless sensor system will ensure the track parametres required for higher speed, said the official.

The unevenness and twist on the track and other conditions can be detected by using laser beam technology, said the official.

While railways has acquired one contactless sensor car from the US, two have to be imported from Europe. One car costs about Rs 5 crore.

All these imported contactless sensor cars will be custom-made for our broad gauge system, said the official.

The Rajdhani route is checked once in three months and other important routes once in four months.

Once the laser beam system is operational it will be used on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata route first. "Later on other routes will also be covered," said the official.