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
