India Seeks Swiss
Rail Tech to Upgrade
Safety Infrastructure

The Swiss Embassy in New Delhi has organised a Swiss rail technology seminar recently, coinciding with the 17th International Engineering and Technology Trade Fair (IETF 2007) of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Swiss Rail, an Industry Association is primarily an export promotion organization for the Swiss guided transport system Engineers and Industry.
Thirteen Swiss Railway Infrastructure companies made presentations on the services they offer and also informed the participants on the new technologies and new areas of their expertise. The objective of the seminar was to explore new partnerships.
Some of the Swiss companies who made presentations were, ABB Switzerland; ACS Solutions, Switzerland; Basler & Hofmann; Flury Arthur AG; HaslerRail AG; Huber+ Suhner AG; Kummler +Matter AG; MEI Inc.; Nencki AG; Prang+ Partner AG; Secheron SA and Selectron Systems AG.
Kul Bhushan, Advisor - Electrical, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways in the Indian Government, delivered the welcome address and said that the consortium of Swiss Industry is engaged with Indian Railways in discussions to upgrade the latter on the technology front.
“The Swiss technology is much advanced and the Indian Railway is working closely with them to develop the Railway Infrastructure,” he mentioned. The transfer of Swiss technology in locomotive manufacturing has brought down the cost of manufacturing to just one-third.
Kulbhushan said that with enhanced services, rational passenger tariffs, creation of fresh freight corridors, technical up gradation, imports of critical components, increased investment, optimal utilization of assets, superb infrastructure Indian Railways is in a turnaround phase.
Safety and technological up gradation is the top priority of Indian Railways and this has thrown open several opportunities for private sector participation. There has been a 10% increase in traffic with additional revenue last year. He also said that the Indian economy is in the boom phase with 9.2% growth in GDP and is projected to grow at 10%, this would mean an expected increase of 12 13% in Railway traffic. The Indian Railway is gearing up to meet the challenge through development railway infrastructure. Two corridors, namely Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata are all set to come up. Three new factories, one for the coaches, producing more than 1000 coaches, one factory for diesel locomotives, and one for the manufacturing of the electric locomotives are likely to be set up soon, he mentioned.
The seminar was attended by V C D Shreni, Additional Member - Electrical, Railway Board.