Page 150 - Technology Roadmap Transportation

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

• Toilets and other facilities without the intervention of driver. But in this
There has not been any improvement in the case, there will be loss of power for some time,
design of toilets in trains. Efforts were made in which may affect the average speed; A better
the past with some type of bio-friendly toilets and method would be to dynamically shift the neutral
collect-and-discharge type toilets. This environment section so that there is no need to switch off the
friendly, low cost and robust technology, jointly locomotive power. Some countries have already
owned by IR and DRDO, is the first of its kind in developed this technology. India needs to develop
Railway Systems in the world. However because of and perfect it.
the nature of traffic, duration and type of logistics
used are quite different in railway than in aircrafts, (i) Energy efficient traction – more regeneration
a suitable technology needs to be developed to Energy efficiency must become the keyword
make toilets as familiar to that of an aircraft. for design of any equipment. Every type
of electric traction rolling stock must have
• Multi-modal station designs and facilities for regenerative capability and feedback to the grid.
persons with disability The new generation fleet is being produced with
Enough has not been done to make the travel of regenerative capability. Railways must review the
differently-abled and aged persons comfortable. useful life of the old fleet of rolling stock and
The height difference between the platform and depending upon the financial viability, develop
carriage floor in many stations, makes it difficult suitable energy recovery devices. This could involve
for aged and disabled persons to enter and exit. changeover to a new type of converter for energy
A special carriage can be designed and attached recovery.
with every train and in such a special carriage, a
few seats/ berths can be allotted for differently- (ii) Captive development of renewable energy
abled and aged people. Further, coaches can be sources/alternate fuels for traction
developed to suit persons travelling across the Although Railways being known as one of the
country for medical treatment. Even moving from environment friendly mode of transport as
one platform to another at short notices, during compared to roadways, there is a steady increase
sudden announcements of platform change, in the fuel bill. The second largest expenditure of
becomes a nightmare. Indian Railways is fuel, both electric and fossil fuels.
Hence the need of the hour is to shift towards
3.1.7 Technologies related to energy management renewable sources of energy and alternate fuels.
and environment issues, Power supply arrangement Alternate fuels like Bio-diesel, CNG/ LNG are
The power requirement of a high-speed train is cheaper than diesel and have potential to replace
enormous. Each power head may be of the order diesel as a preferred choice for traction fuel
of 6MW, and for a normal train configuration, globally. Suitable IC engines must be developed to
2 to 3 such units may be attached in one train, take care of the alternate fuels.
making the requirement above 12-18MW. The
traction substation capacity and spacing needs (iii) Development of Hydrogen fuel cell based
augmentation. Presently, single phase is used for locomotives/EMUs is another option
traction, and this may continue in future as well, Next generation vehicles are expected to be
till a path breaking technology is developed to working on fuel cells. It would be advisable to
make the present scheme obsolete. In order to initiate a technology development project of
balance the grid, three phases are staggered and hybrid electric-cum-fuel cell locomotives. The initial
fed to the OHE in successive substations. This development can be aimed at low power shunting
requires creation of neutral sections in the OHE engine or a rail car.
segregating different phases. The driver is required
to switch off the loco circuit breaker before (iv) Use of solar power for station lighting and
entering the neutral zone and again switch on ventilation
after passing the neutral zone. This is becoming Progressively, the station lighting and ventilation
difficult even at the present speeds of 130-140 km/h, must get shifted to solar power. Suitable
especially at night with poor visibility. It also adds technology and industries are to be identified for
stress to the driver. achieving this objective.

For high-speed operation, an automatic (v) Smart railway energy grids
mechanism is needed to detect the neutral zone The traction power requirement is diverse and
and switch off and switch on the circuit breaker varies widely. It is difficult to maintain a constant

148 RAILWAYS