'Goyal meets Indian manufacturers of TCAS'

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today sought to encourage the Indian manufacturers of Train Collision Avoidance System to attain global standards, while meeting the yardsticks of safety and security for their products, said an official.

In a meeting with representatives of three TCAS manufacturing firms, the minister also stressed on the need to increase in-line capacity and indigenisation of the technology, the official said.

The minister asked the representatives of the three firms - M/s Medha, M/s HBL and M/s Kernex - to upgrade the TCAS system to international best practices so that Indian technology matches their international counterparts.

"The companies were advised to develop an interface between ETCS Level 2 ( European Train Control System)and TCAS system so that locos provided can work in both territories," an official said.

The firms were also told to expedite the trials and safety certifications, said the official, adding that the railways also nominated two officials to be their point of contact with the national transporter.

During the meeting, it was noted that TCAS has certain shortcomings like lack of automatic signalling and the inability to increase the line capacity, among other things.

"The minister asked the firms to work on the above mentioned shortcomings and advised that Indian companies should be preferred over their international counterparts. He said once completed, this work would bring international technology and global best practices to the country," the official said.

Director General (Signalling and Telecom) has been instructed to submit a fortnightly report in this regard.