The 31st Maintenance Study Group Traction distribution meeting was held at Somnath on 8th and 9th November, 2019. Western Railway provided the logistic support for the successful conduct of this important meeting attended by senior officials from Railway Board, RDSO and all the 16 Railway Zones and PSUs. This meeting assumed greater significance as Railways is marching ahead with electrification of non-electrified routes to facilitate introduction of electric traction, which is considered more energy efficient & pollution free, quieter mode of transport.
According to a press release issued by Shri Ravinder Bhakar – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, the meeting was chaired by Smt. Manju Gupta – Additional Member Electrical/ Railway Board. Shri. Sanjiv Bhutani – Principal Chief Electrical Engineer welcomed all the delegates on behalf of Western Railway. Shri. Sanjiv Swarup, PED/RDSO delivered the opening remarks and thanked Western Railway for excellent arrangement made by them for smooth conduct of MSG-TRD. Smt. Manju Gupta addressed the delegates and informed that Railway has set the target to commission 7500 RKM during financial year 2019-20. All out efforts shall be put in by all concerned to not only achieve this target but to achieve more. Railways shall extend whole hearted support to RE to achieve set targets. She appreciated the efforts and support being extended by Western Railway, which has to electrify 1500 RKM during current financial year. The performance of TRD assets need to be improved so that there shall not be any failure of overhead equipment. The organization for TRD assets maintenance and upgradation of knowledge of supervisors and staffs are the challenges before Zones, especially those which were not electrified earlier.
Various issues pertaining to Traction Distribution Maintenance were discussed during the meeting to overcome the failure observed during Electric train operations and issues arose during maintenance of Over Head Equipment (OHE) & power supply installations. Other innovative ideas raised, proposed by Zonal Railways were presented and deliberated by officers from Rly.Bd, RDSO, Metro Railway, CORE, IRIEEN and Zonal Railways.
