Contained in the high-tech operations management centre (OCC) of Western Devoted Freight Hall (WDFC) in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, the 72-meter panoramic wall is illuminated with tons of of traces in crimson, blue, yellow, inexperienced operating from one finish to the opposite, resembling the mission management room of an area station.
A practice alarm goes out loud within the expanse of the room. Sitting on the mechanical part row of multi-screen window, Rahul Sapre, a junior engineer, shortly press the temperature log view to search out that the axle field of a wagon of a freight practice passing via New Varediya-New Makapura part at 72 kmph was heating up, with any distinction within the temperature of the wheel bearing on both aspect that pushes above 25 diploma centigrade successfully setting off the hooter.
Unfold over 3.07 acres of space, the Ahmedabad OCC is one the 2 key centres of 2843-km Devoted freight hall of Indian Railways, which has mapped each of asset of its community
Sapre then alerted the station grasp of New Makarpura and offered particulars of practice quantity, wagon quantity and axle field quantity for bodily verification of the heating alarm by stopping the practice on the station. It was an error within the brake binding, and the practice was allowed to go after the issue was mounted. With this course of, Sapre averted a possible practice derailment as he and different continued to observe each such abberation on the expansive show board that spanned the wall, with blinking colors exhibiting the standing of motion of each freight practice alongside the route in actual time.
“The alarm was despatched by the recent axle field detector (HABD) put in subsequent to the Railway monitor. It makes use of infrared sensors to detect overheating. The temperature distinction of both aspect of the axle mustn’t exceed 25 diploma centigrade and absolute temperature can’t be over 82 diploma centigrade. The centre is the guts of the 1506-km community of WDFC. We keep watch over actually each motion of over 150 pairs of trains on the route,” mentioned Sapre.
Unfold over 3.07 acres of space, the Ahmedabad OCC is one the 2 key centres of 2843-km Devoted freight hall of Indian Railways, which has mapped each of asset of its network- from monitor, traction energy, sign & telecommunications, rolling shares, stations- in a management room to offer seamless move of products alongside its formidable rail freight arteries. It’s now working in the direction of the Predictive Upkeep system enabled by Synthetic Intelligence (AI).
With this method in place, the Indian Railways is seeking to obtain its formidable goal to extend the freight site visitors to 3000 million tonnes (MT) by 2030 from over 1600 MT freight loaded in 2024-25 (FY25) and lift the pace of freight trains to 100 kmph from present common pace of 25 kmph.
With this method in place, the Indian Railways is seeking to obtain its formidable goal to extend the freight site visitors to 3000 million tonnes (MT) by 2030
First introduced within the Railway price range of 2005-06, the event of DFCC community bumped into many delays owing to many challenges like prolonged strategy of approval, excessive quantum of earthwork, and Land acquisitions and so forth.
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Whereas 1337-km Japanese Devoted Freight hall (EDFC), which runs from Ludhiana (Punjab) to Sonnagar (Bihar) is totally commissioned, the 102-km stretch from Vaitarna to Mumbai (JNPT) of WDFC is pending and scheduled to be accomplished by the tip of this 12 months. In all, the DFCs traverse via 9 states and 72 districts, Devoted Freight Hall Company of India Restricted (DFCCIL), a particular objective automobile (SPV) of Ministry of Railways, has been tasked with the development, operation and upkeep of the entire community.
Spanning 1,506 km from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) to Mumbai (Maharashtra), the WDFC passes via Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, immediately linking India’s industrial clusters with main western ports. At the moment 93.2 % full, WDFC is operational on a number of stretches, carrying double-stack container providers, cement and clinker trains, coal rakes for energy vegetation, Vehicles on Prepare providers and parcel site visitors. With volumes steadily rising, WDFC is dealing with on a mean 180 freight trains per day on commissioned sections, demonstrating its potential to decongest passenger routes, cut back street freight and promote modal shift.
Manish Awasthy, the Chief Normal Supervisor of DFCCIL, mentioned that after totally commissioned, the WDFC will cut back the logistics prices, reducing freight transit occasions, and boosting India’s export-import competitiveness.
Spanning 1,506 km from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) to Mumbai (Maharashtra), the WDFC passes via Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, immediately linking India’s industrial clusters with main western ports.
“For Indian Railways to move extra freight via its community, we wanted such a command centre to observe each side of its operation to expedite the motion. On the OCC, we will see the place the congestion is, pace of the trains, well being of the rolling inventory, monitoring of full electrical traces and so forth. We will determine which practice to expedite to make sure speedy arrival of products. With this method we’ve got been in a position to improve our common pace to 50-55 kmph and transit time has lowered by virtually 50 %,” mentioned Awasthy.
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At the moment, each DFC collectively carry virtually 13 % of Indian Railways whole gross tonne-kilometer (GTKM) freight. Awasthy additional mentioned that OCC is linked to all of the stations of WDFC in addition to Divisional head quarters of Indian Railways on twin redundant OFC (Optical Fiber Cable) system.
“It has centralised management and functioning of two*25 KV traction energy via SCADA (Supervisory Management & Knowledge Acquisition) and common electrical techniques via non-traction SCADA. It additionally has a system to ascertain communication with practice loco-pilots and station masters, the International System for Cellular Radio Communication for Railways (GSM-R),” mentioned the official.
Jitendra Kumar Agrawal, Extra Normal Supervisor of DFCCIL on the command centre, who takes care of operations and enterprise improvement, mentioned that techniques like HABD and Axle counter put in throughout the WDFC ensures security as rising pace of practice would possibly end in derailment if not monitored correctly.
“Now we have put in a complete of 80 HABD throughout the WDFC traces. Equally we’ve got an axle counter between two indicators which counts each axle of the practice. If there may be any error in counting the axles of the wagon, it instantly sends a message to the management room and the subsequent sign is instantly made crimson in order that the practice doesn’t transfer ahead and the error could be investigated,” mentioned Agrawal.
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Again on the room with a giant wall, Rahul Sapre goes again to the dashboard for the month of August. He obtained a complete of 495 alarms, of which suggestions was taken in 490 circumstances. A complete of 129 circumstances concerned brake binding, 320 of HTNAD and eight circumstances have been of sizzling axle, which turns into one of many potential causes of practice derailment.
“In an eight hour shift per day, we get 10-12 alarms per day. We can’t take any one of many alarms frivolously. You by no means know what it might result in,” mentioned the engineer.