Need to catch up with changing railway technology: Prabhu

New Delhi, July 20: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday described tracks as the backbone of Indian Railways and said it is necessary to catch up with the changing technology for better outcomes.

"Indian Railways is a very professional organisation that carries out both policy and implementation successfully," Prabhu said.

He was addressing the International Technical Seminar on Global Trends in Track Technologies and Fast Paced Construction organised by the Institution of Permanent Way Engineers.

"There is a greater necessity to catch up with the changing technology for better outcomes, especially with regard to increasing necessity for enhancing the speed of implementation of projects and towards faster goals in building new tracks," he said.

Describing the tracks as the backbone of the Railways, Prabhu said that a corridor approach in construction of new tracks would lead to consolidation of gains with regard to new railway projects.

The seminar was attended by over 15 speakers, including international experts who spoke on systems of High-Speed Rail namely Japanese Shinkansen, SNCF (France) and Spain's High-Speed Rails (HSR).

The experts also spoke on the history of track managements systems, track components, rail fasteners and technological standards adopted on high-speed rails.

Aditya Kumar Mittal, Railway Board Member (Engineer), highlighted the recent initiatives taken by the Railways like the web-enabled Track Management System (TMS) to manage all track maintenance-related activities.

He also highlighted the bridge management, track machines monitoring and maintenance system, project management and information system, CRS sanctions monitoring application, building and structures information system, GIS and GPS mapping of Indian Railways assets, and use of items and CCTV cameras for monitoring major projects.