SMART MATERIALS

AND TECHNIQUES
USED IN INDIAN
RAILWAYS

PRESENTEDBY: NIDHI JARIWALA

GUIDED BY: DR. AYYANNA HABAL
 INTRODUCTION
For running any industry or business, we need a number of resources. These resources are
popularly known as five M’s of any Industrial activity i.e. Men, Machines, Materials, Money
and Management. All these resources, which are basic inputs, are important but their
relative importance depends upon the particular type of industry and also other
environmental factors. Earlier, when many modern machines were not even known, whole
activity was centered around one source, the men. But now the importance has by and large
shifted from “men” to “machines” and in the recent environment, materials are the life blood
of any industry or business and for their proper running, materials should be available at
proper time in proper quantity at proper place.
Indian Railways operates at a massive scale in every imaginable dimension and is among the
world's largest rail network, spread over 1,23,236 kms, with 13,523 passenger trains and
9,146 freight trains, carrying 23 million travellers and 3.5 MT of freight daily from 7,349
stations. A dedicate 1.2 Million plus Manpower works round the clock to keep the wheels
moving. Such a large-scale operation provides ample opportunities for Innovations in
various facets of its working.
A few innovative improvements are the State of the Art SMART Coaches having special
diagnostic systems and sensors connected to integrated computer systems for increased
passenger comfort, SMART Locomotives having new features as Asset Performance Monitor
(APM), Locotrol, LocoVision, Rail Integrity Monitor (RIM) etc, SMART Yards with ICT
systems, sensors and data analytics to automatically gather information on rolling stock
conditions, Automated Train Examination System (ATES), new technology Signalling
Systems with new features being added as indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP)
system, Centralized Traffic Control (CTC), Train Management System (TMS) etc.

Budget 2022-23
According to the Budget documents, the Railway Ministry has been allocated budgetary
support of Rs 1,40,367.13 crore for 2022-23, which is Rs 20,311 crore more than the revised
estimates of the previous fiscal. Overall, the national transportation is set to get a capital
expenditure push of Rs 2.45 lakh crore in 2022-23, 14 percent higher than the budgeted
capital expenditure of Rs 2.15 lakh crore for the current financial year. 400 new-generation
Vande Bharat trains with better energy efficiency and passenger riding experience will be
developed and manufactured during the next three years. These new train sets are going to
be made of light-weight aluminium, as opposed to steel, making each around 50 tonnes
lighter in weight, consuming much less energy than their steel counterparts. The new trains
will have reduced noise levels, reduced vibration, better safety and experience. 

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 Ultrasonic rail flaw detection
Ultrasonic flaw detection (USFD) units can enable early identification of rail flaws.
Although used extensively at Indian Railways, the efficiency of the process can be
significantly improved through adoption of innovative USFD technology. Rail flaw
detection units can be either standalone (requiring track block for testing) or mounted
onto locomotives (and hence can be put on commercial trains and not require specific
blocks for testing):
• Standalone units can be operated either on a non-stop self-powered rail car or on
stop-and- verify vehicles. The efficiency of non-stop units is greater than the stop-
and-verify vehicles, but accuracy is lower with far more instances of false
positives. Canadian National has used stop-and-verify vehicles with great success.
• Locomotive-mounted rail flaw detection technologies, such as the ones developed
by General Electric (GE) and Siemens, enable real-time testing of track integrity,
and have been successfully piloted in North America and Australia.

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 Rolling stock
Most of the rail coaches run through traditional manufacturing processes that lead to high
inventory cost with parts being produced and stored before being assembled. With
digitalisation, the costly traditional manufacturing is being rapidly optimised and enhanced
by platform-based 3D technologies.
With the rolling stock manufacturers using virtual 3D platform and technology to
incorporate subsystems, components and assembly information, the coach designs are
accurately modelled, simulated, analysed and improved in the virtual world, to correct the
faults and inefficiencies in order to avoid costly mistakes.
Additive manufacturing is evolving as a game changer in the Railways like in other sectors.
The Railways recently started using ‘Make in India’ 3D printer to design and print coach
components in-house as per requirement.

Signalling system
The technological advancements are enhancing the railway infrastructure capacity by
converting to electrified routes with advanced signalling. This modernisation of signalling
system includes implementation of European Train Control System (ETCS) that adheres if
the speed limit of the train is compatible with the permitted speed allowed by signalling,
thus improving safety and punctuality.
With the plans to modernise 8,000 railway stations, the government is also leveraging the
Building Information Modelling (BIM) process for designing and installing railway-
signalling systems. The 3D technologies helps to visualise infrastructure life-cycle and solve
problems by eliminating various issues because of the mistakes caused by poor
communication of data.
The infrastructure 3D model technology also recognises the oncoming train and its speed,
records data image and helps with 3D visualisation of railway track with all assets, train
driver simulations and digital track capturing.
Additionally, the new policy framework by the government has proposed to use public-

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 private partnership (PPP) to unleash faster development signalling systems in the country.

Remote monitoring and management of locomotive system

(REMMLOT)
The new Indian Railways diesel locomotives are equipped with GPS devices for monitoring
the health of the locomotives. This system comprises of an on-board sensor, GPS receiver
and processor panel etc. that can capture, process and communicate data through GPRS
service to a common web server for further processing of data. REMMLOT in diesel
locomotives is also used for capturing train arrival and departure information and
communicating the same to COA.

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 Use of IoT
IoT devices like sensors find great applications when it comes to the railways. Indian
Railways can make use of these sensors by mounting them on tracks to monitor the
conditions. These sensors can also sense trains movements and transmit information when a
train crosses a location, which will possibly reduce the delay of time. The sensors on the
track can collect data on the track stress, track conditions, temperatures and other variables
which will significantly reduce the time wasted by human intervention when it comes to
examining these conditions. If there is a problem with wagons and tracks, the operators can
take pre-emptive measures for safer operations.
Using analytics, the operators can already track trains across networks and process data.
Some companies use IoT to check the flow of passengers like the ones waiting at stations,
travelling in coaches and the time when the flow of the passengers is at the peak. All of this
data can help in efficiently scheduling the trains as per commuters’ behaviors. The IoT
operators can also make use of weather prediction modelling to check if the routes have
suitable for weather conditions.
Apart from making things easy for booking tickets, giving scheduling information via
smartphones, IoT can also help in taking the user experience a step further. It can help in
making travel personalized for specific passengers. The IoT systems can be used to
understand the history of customer experience and make significant changes to improve and
personalize their experience.

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 Smart Gates and Smart Alarms
Smart gates are something which could impact the flow of trains. These gates can receive
alerts from a selected platform and then raise alarms or signalling red when a train is within
a certain distance. When the train crosses a junction, the status resets and opens the gates.
Apart from these smart gates, the Indian government also plans to use technological
solutions like centralised traffic control, automatic train protection, and automatic
signalling.
Smart alarms are a step toward curbing the trespassing problem. These alarms can receive
information from the sensors on tracks and make a sound when a human is on the tracks,
making it easier for train drivers to make a fix.

Real Time Train Information System (RTIS)

Indian Railways decided to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) for the automatic generation of
train arrival and departure information from the train and automatic feeding of the same in
COA. Under the Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) project, approximately 2,700
electric locomotives running on Indian Railways’ network have been equipped with
satellite devices. A RTIS locomotive device comprises of an indoor unit installed in the
locomotive cabin and an outdoor unit installed on the locomotive roof-top. The RTIS
application software in a locomotive’s device determines train movement events i.e. arrival,
departure, run-through (ADR) at stations and en-route location updates at 30 second
intervals, based on pre-defined logic applied on spatial coordinates and speed received
continuously from the satellite receiver. A RTIS locomotive device has an Intel Atom

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 processor, adequate memory and a Solid State Drive (SSD). Satellite communication
service is used for communicating locomotive movement updates to the data centre, where
it is processed and forwarded to the COA server of Indian Railways. The ADR events, along
with position/location updates, are communicated to a Central Location Server (CLS) using
the satellite communication service, as well as 4G/3G mobile data service. The CLS
processes the data received and relays it to a train control application for the automatic
plotting of control charts. As train control application is already integrated with the
National Train Enquiry System (NTES), accurate real-time information of train running is
relayed to passengers. The system architecture of RTIS is shown in Figure. 

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REFERENCES

www.nair.indianrailways.gov.in
https://indianrailways.gov.in
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https://ficci.in
www.thehindubusinessline.com
www.globalrailwayreview.com
https://analyticsindiamag.com
https://theprint.in

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