New Delhi, Jan 30: Railways should adopt cost-effective technologies in coaching and electric traction for providing greater comfort to passengers, railway minister Nitish Kumar said here today. Inaugurating a two-day international seminar on "Emerging trends in coaching and electric traction in the rail sector-- Cost effective technoligies," the Minister said though the railways has made substantial progress in electric traction and was now capable of manufacturing state-of-the-art three-phase electric locos indigenously, there was always scope for improving technology.
Emphasising the importance of technology, he said the railway engineers and planners should endeavour to develop new technologies so that these could be used for making the system more modern and user-friendly.
Kumar said the development of new electric technologies were also urgently needed because the state electricity boards were charging the railways exorbitantly for supplying electricity, and this was substantially increasing railways' energy bill.
He said railways were exploring the possibility of setting up a captive power plant with the help of the National Thermal Power Corporation for meeting its power requirements and checking its increasing electricity bill.
The minister said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had Ben signed and a joint project committee studying the scheme was expected to give its recommendations next month. Bureau Report