Dimapur, Feb. 15 (EMN): A technical seminar under the aegis of the Institution of Permanent Way Engineers (India) will be conducted in the BKB Auditorium of Gauhati University on Feb. 23 and the 24th on the issue of monitoring technology to optimise tracks, bridge, and tunnel maintenance. This was stated in a press release issued by Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) in Maligaon on Feb. 15.
Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal, with Minister of State for Railways (S) Manoj Sinha and Minister of State for Railways (G) Rajen Gohain are expected to attend the seminar.
The Institution of Permanent Way Engineers is said to be a technical body set up under the auspices of the Railway Ministry for sharing knowledge and experience of various railway engineers connected with ‘permanent way’ (railway track), bridges and other structure. The institution was formed on May 18, 1967 with its headquarters at Pune. It has been playing a vital role in disseminating knowledge of ‘permanent way,’ bridges and other structures amongst various Railwaymen for the past more than 50 years. It runs also a diploma course on “railway engineering” through distance learning, it is informed. During the seminar delegates from all over India and overseas belonging to permanent way fraternity are said to be participating for sharing their experiences wile seminar deliberations on monitoring technology for maintenance of track, bridges and tunnels will take place and thought provoking papers supported by extensive field data will be presented.
Indian Railways are said to be witnessing a massive up-gradation and expansion of its infrastructure in the recent times. With continuously increasing traffic, higher speeds and increased axle loads, the demand for inspection and maintenance of the infrastructure is ever increasing.
To face the challenges of efficient and reliable movement of high volume of traffic, the traditional man-power intensive, subjective methods of inspection and assessment of condition of infrastructure are no longer sufficient. The advancement in science and technology has opened up new vistas with a large number of techniques and instrumentation processes available for inspection and condition assessment of infrastructure. Indian railways has been using several technologies developed from time to time for monitoring of track, bridges and tunnels.
Recent developments worldwide provide several new opportunities for cost effective and precision monitoring of assets. The purpose of this seminar is to attract participation from the international as well as Indian experts in the field of monitoring of track, bridges and tunnels in order to share the knowledge of the latest developments and technologies available in the field to help optimise the maintenance costs and improve reliability of assets.
