Southern Railway Installs Train Protection System

TPWS on the 68 km Basin Bridge-Arakkonam section installed by French-based company Thales was inaugurated by Railway Board Director General (Signal and Telecommunication) Akhil Agrawal on Wednesday in the presence of Additional Member (Telecom) H K Agarwal and other railway officials.

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According to sources, Southern Railway will be installing TPWS on the Chennai – Arakkonam route at a cost of Rs 30 crore. While this system was first deployed in Chennai – Gummidipoondi section, the other routes to get this system soon are Chennai Beach – Tambaram – Chengalpattu and the Arakkonam – Jolarpettai sections, at a cost of Rs 200 crore, sources said.

Tenders have been called for the Beach – Tambaram – Chengalpattu EMU section.

[quote font_size=”16″ arrow=”yes”]”We hope to complete both the projects within two years,”[/quote] sources said.

The project involves linking up about 169 signals on the Chennai – Arakkonam route and laying track side equipment (installation and wiring of line side electronic units and their interfacing with balises (balise is an electronic beacon) installed on the track. As many as 82 EMU trains fitted with onboard system ply between Gummidipoondi – Chennai – Arakkonam section with this enhanced safety system.

The TPWS, which deploys the state-of-the-art European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS – Level 1) technology, will not only warn drivers of obstructions ahead but help regulate speed of trains and in dire cases, even activate emergency braking systems automatically in case the driver fails to heed warning signs. TPWS provides additional layers of safety in a fully automatic signalling section like the Chennai railway division without compromising on the density of traffic or the speedy despatch of train services every 10 minutes. This system also guides motormen during poor visibility of signal due to foggy weather conditions. The system uses on board computer consoles, or the driver machine interface, connected via wireless to track-side balise devices that use electro-magnetic induction to change the signal aspect from the default green to red whenever a train rolls by.