Interview Insights
Rail Analysis: Please brief us more about projects Siemens is presently involved in the railway sector?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: As a leader in rail transport solutions, Mobility has been partnering India since 1950. From a signaling company, we have come a long way in progressively augmenting capacity and safety of rail operations in India. Our core business areas are Rolling Stock components, rail automation, electrification, and turnkey solutions. Currently, the Mobility business of Siemens Limited is providing train control management system and electrics for nine Vande Bharat Express trainsets and installing electronic interlocking systems at various railway junctions across India. Siemens is also involved in the electrification and signaling of several Metros. Siemens is also providing project management, turnkey electrification, signaling, communications and depot works (equipment) for the prestigious Pune Hinjewadi Metro line 3 project. In addition, there are numerous other projects that are in tendering phase and Siemens bids for these as part of its normal business.
Rail Analysis: How can Siemens partner with Indian Railways and various metro companies to create advanced and smart railway infrastructure?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: Siemens combines its technology expertise and global experience to transform the everyday for commuters and the freight transportation industry. We have been a reliable partner of Indian Railways for more than 70 years with solutions for locomotive components, Mumbai Suburban EMU, coupled with signaling, automation and electrification solution for mainline and metro. Siemens has proven innovative technologies enhanced by digitalization, such as End of Train Telemetry (EOTT), broken rail detection, train control and management system, signaling solutions such as communications based train control, rolling stock and highspeed rail, etc.
Rail Analysis: Recently, Electric locomotive tender has been announced, Can you share with us your insights and offerings if Siemens is looking to also participate in this?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: Siemens has technologies and components for both 9000HP and 12000HP electric locomotives. These are important milestones in Indian Railways’ vision of complete electrification, enhanced haulage capability and building hightechnology systems in line with the Make in India initiative. The elocomotives can contribute to Indian Railways increasing its share of freight traffic and is capable of hauling bulk loads at high gradients, increasing the average speed of the trains, network capacities and will eventually help Indian Railways achieve its target of achieving 50 percent of freight traffic by 2030.
Rail Analysis: ESG is a major focus area of organizations, How is Siemens contributing to the ESG requirements and its contribution to the society?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: Siemens has a global sustainability framework ‘DEGREE’ that stands for decarbonization, ethics, governance, resource efficiency, equity and employability. Sustainability is one of the key pillars of the way Siemens does business, and we work toward creating greater impact through our customer’s operations. Mobility technologies from Siemens deliver high energy efficiency, minimizing energy usage across the life cycle while offering a comfortable passenger experience.
Rail Analysis: How is Digitalization helping you to enable mobility operations worldwide and what are your future plans for adopting them in India?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: Siemens is already testing and has implemented digitalization in India. We have moved from manual diagnosticbased maintenance checks to datadriven predictive maintenance. We have moved from collaboration around paper to interactive collaboration in virtual designs. We’re leveraging the benefits of digitalization and engineering excellence to develop indigenous transport solutions for India. And we always go the extra mile to help transport services keep moving beyond the expected.
Rail Analysis: What is your opinion on the future of railway and metro’s infrastructure in India by 2050? What are the new technologies and methods need to adopt?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: The civil and track infrastructure in India will need addition of another 80,000 kilometers of track and be able to support speeds of at least 160 kilometer per hour. The focus should be on enabling Indian citizens to get benefit of rail services for intercity travel and last / first mile being within reasonable distance. The testing of tracks should be on international standards, and several test tracks could be laid. Freight infrastructure must be integrated with the multimodal parks and ensure easy collection and distribution points. Automatic signaling as well as national automatic train protection system are imperatives for highest level of safety and avoidance of derailment, and can be achieved by advanced learning of prospective rail fracture and by using advance sensing and artificial intelligence. Modern technology is also needed for comprehensive life cycle maintenance. There are solutions available for predictive maintenance that reduces maintenance costs and increase the overall lifecycle of the fixed infrastructure as well as the rolling stock. These are based on modern sensing, algorithms, and artificial intelligence.
Electric locomotives with modern propulsion technology, 100% electrification of routes, connecting key cities with highspeed network and intercity trains with modern amenities for infotainment would ensure worldclass passenger experience. All these efforts towards making trains and infrastructure intelligent would contribute towards making rail the most preferred mode of transport.
Rail Analysis: Siemens was a winner at the recent Rail & Metro Awards event 2022 edition hosted by Rail Analysis. Please share with your experience at the summit?
Shri Tilak Raj Seth: Such appreciation and recognition are testimonials of Siemens’ project capabilities as well as technology leadership. They will further inspire local manufacturers to innovate and deliver as per the requirements of customers in India, aligned with the Government’s Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.
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