Title - : Southern Railway launches tender process for TPWS

Southern Railway has launched tendering procedures for the installation of Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) along three key suburban routes as a measure of enhancing passenger safety.The TPWS, which was first deployed on trial basis on the 48-km Chennai Beach-Central-Gummidipoondi EMU sector in 2005-06, will soon be extended to the Basin Bridge-Arakkonam (68 km), Arakkonam-Jolarpettai (150 kms) and Beach-Tambaram-Chengalpattu (60 kms) sectors, Railway sources said.The TPWS will deploy the state-of-the-art European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS-Level 1)) technology to provide an extra layer of safety in suburban train operations.The technology features a Driver-Machine Interface, connected via wireless to track-side balise devices that use electro-magnetic induction to create a signalling loop that will regulate train speeds in relation with caution aspect of the signal and in dire cases, even activate emergency braking systems automatically in case a pilot speeds past a warning sign leading to what is known in Railway parlance as “Signal Passed at Danger”, or SPAD.In short, the TPWS is designed to prevent exactly the type of disasters that occurred in Arakkonam on September 13, 2011 when 11 persons were killed when the Chennai Beach-Vellore Cantonment MEMU rammed into the rear of the Arakkonam-Katpadi passenger near Chitheri railway station, and more recently the rail tragedy near Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh when the Hampi Express ran into a stationary goods train. (In fact, following the Anantapur mishap, Union Railways Minister Mukul Roy had stated that the Railways would widely deploy the TPWS in the Indian Railway network).“We have reached tendering phase for TPWS installation on new sectors as we now have a robust framework of specs and a custom-fit version of the technology for Indian conditions,” S. Manohar, Chief Signal and Telecom Engineer, Southern Railway told The Hindu .