Railways start collaboration forum with technical agencies

Indian Railways on Tuesday announced that it has started a collaboration forum among the government's major technical and scientific agencies.

According to the Ministry of Railways, the collaboration forum will help in development of special material and technologies for improving railway's rolling stock.

"This will help in developing systems for Indian Railways which are best suited to the country's local conditions and needs," the ministry said in a statement.

"It would create a constantly evolving rolling stock technology development process to create exportable products like coaches, locomotive, wagons, cranes, special vehicles."

The statement further said that the Indian Railways convened a round table session on Monday with heads of ISRO, CSIR, DRDO, RDSO, Department of Science and Technology and Department of Defence Production.

During the roundtable, Indian railways sought collaboration on development of structural material, panelling material, germicidal and wear resistant furnishing material, among others.

The statement disclosed that development of Maglev (magnetic levitation) and special alloy aluminium coaches were identified as areas for co-operation.

"The meeting ended with announcement of a permanent mechanism of "Standing Intra-Government Technical Collaboration Panel" (SITCOP) to converge government's internal capabilities to create better and futuristic rolling stock," the statement said.

The statement added that the SITCOP shall meet twice a year to review progress on collaborative projects assigned to inter-area action teams assigned by the body.

--IANS

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