Date : 11-13 October, 2017
Venue : Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India
Asia’s Mega Rail Transportation event inaugurated on October 11, 2017. Mr. Ravindra Gupta, Member, IR Board, H.E. Ambassador of Japan Kenji Hiramatsu, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, C P Sharma, Chairman, RTED/CII. Rajiv Jyoti, Past President, RTED and Anand Chidhambaram, Vice Chair, RTED were present on the occassion.
Overview & Highlights
The International Railway Equipment Exhibition is the only international event in India for the Railway and its related sectors, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
The event provided an opportunity to be part of the current initiative of the largest ever modernization and expansion plans of Indian railways. This exhibition provided a platform for showcasing the latest technological advancements, new products and innovations directly to the large number of decision makers from Indian Railways who were present at IREE 2017.
Japan was the partner country to the event, Daulat Ram Engineering being the event supporter, Delta & Knorr Bremse being Platinum Supporters and lastly ABB, Mitsubishi Electric & Escorts being the Gold Supporters.
Highlights of The Event
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal Called For Speed, Safety and Innovation
In an impassioned and energetic address, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal lay out his plan for making Indian Railways “The best among the best railway systems” across the world.
- The Minister was forthright In assessing That IR could develop more stake-holder friendly policies and procedures that push to lower costs and faster compliance.
- IR Board has been instructed to work towards contract-easing process, clearing due payments within 30 days, bulking of works to ensure adequate contracts that permit opmial pricing and faster product development cycles.
- It is expected that all pending cases of product development pending IR’s RDSO would be listed and acted upon quickly.
- IR is now working towards pushing coach production from existing around 4000 p.a. to near 7000 and this would require industry marching in step.
Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII Trade Fairs Council Said About The Event
We strongly believe that the trade exposition not only brings out the best of industry but also assists dialogue and debate on matters of mutual interest. Trade fairs help evolve solutions to challenges facing industry and act as a facilitator foe economic growth.
I am confident that this addition of IREE, the largest ever In size and participation from both global and domestic industry, would prove to be valuable for all the stakeholders.
Ravindra Gupta, Member, IR Board Addressed
He presented a snapshot of some of the development activities now on stream.
- IR will stop manufacture of the decades old ICF design coaches from April 2018 (except EMU and some special purpose stock): instead plans are now well progressed towards increasing production of much safer and comfortable LHB designs.
- IR is also aggressively pushing the contracting and installation processes for condition based maintenance equipment, and that should address many of the current safety issues.
IRIS quality norms
- In a significant announcement, Gupta indicated that IR production units will be asked to shift to quality assurance schemes compliant with the European rail norm IRIS.
- The IR vendor base would also be mandated to certify compliance to the IRIS norm.
- This step will bring the Indian rail industry much closer to international standards, and also boost service reliability.
C.P Sharma, Chaiman, CII Rail Transport & Equipment Division and The Managing Director, Daulat Ram Engineering said about the IREE 2017-
The IREE objective is to become the main platform and support system for Indian Railways (IR) in its modernization and expansion plans, and the main driver of bolstering competitiveness and enabling freight and passenger transportation system.
This event, with the Largest gathering of representatives from global rail transportation Industry, will act as a catalyst in realizing our ambitions of bringing together IR and its partners under a neutral platform to network and deliberate on possibilities.
Japan Railway Seminar
The Japan Railway Seminar saw 29 presentations by participating companies, with each pin pointing potential contribution to Indian Network Investments, particularly the forthcoming high speed link. Companies are already factoring in their plans for Make in India shift.
An MoU has also been signed with Indian Major PSU BHEL for progressive value addition. BHEL has good footprints in power generation and supply, traction systems for rail and electronics. For the Mumbai-Ahmedabad link, about 240 coaches will be needed and bulk of these will be sourced from the parent plant in Japan.
New Products on Display at IREE 2017
Solar Panel On Coaches by Daulat Ram Engineering
A conceptual model of a flat solar panel fitted coach, that can feed the coach power needs from a solar panel IR is already working a train set with such equipment. Successful trials will be extended for broader application.
Oil-free compressor for locomotive application By ELGI
ELGI has been a long time IR vendor for various types compressors and other equipment maintenance load and come with High reliability IR has already tried out designs and ELGI plans to have their version on trial in coming months. Such designs should replace the traditional Oil reservoir compressors that also carry an environment penalty.
Concrete Sleepers By Patil Rail Infrastructure
The company is the Largest Indian manufacturer of concrete sleepers, displaying a wide variety of developmental products, including a wider base sleeper that could become standard fitment on IR in coming years.
Faiveley’s Product
Modern coaches employ friction brakes on an axle mounted discs, with a brake application unit mounted as an integrated unit. Faiveley has now developed a proto-version of a design that can provide adequate braking for the proposed 160 kph train sets. The design uses a cast steel brake disc and sintered brake pads.
The 3 days event concluded successfully with attendance of several big Companies from multiple countries.
