New Delhi, February 27, 2019: With an aim to make railway travel safe in India, Japan has offered to extend its expertise to the Indian Railways (IR) engineers.
In July, a batch of IR engineers would travel to Japan to receive training on railway safety management as well as railways accident investigations.
The training would be imparted by Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) that conducts hi-tech and specialised investigations in aircraft, marine and railways accidents.
Under this Technical Cooperation (TC) Project, which aims to enhance the capacities of the Indian Railways (IR) and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) with regard to safety of the railway, especially in the fields of Rails welding and inspection, Track maintenance, Rolling stock maintenance, Accident investigation, and Safety management, the first batch of JICA’s Expert for railway accident investigation came to India to have discussions with IR on February 25 in order to deepen mutual understanding of methodology for railway accident investigation in India and Japan.
Accident investigation is considered essential to improve railway safety operation by inspecting the cause of an accident and taking appropriate measure for that.
Speaking on the occasion, M.P Singh, Chief Development Specialist, JICA India said, “Through this TC Project, JICA Experts are “Jointly” working with IR and DFCCIL for mutual learning and co-creation of possible solutions to the safety related issues. We are jointly planning training programs in Japan for sharing Japanese knowledge and experience in various aspect of railway safety. We expect that Japanese and Indian cooperation through this TC project would contribute and promote safe operations and appropriate maintenance for Indian Railway.”
Soon, the IR officials will be finalising the number of investigators to be trained in Japan and give their names to the JICA officials.
The Indian railway network is one of the largest in the world, and maintenance of safer and reliable operations is of utmost priority. JICA is currently supporting construction of 1500 km network for freight operation between Delhi and Mumbai; i.e. the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. We expect that Japanese knowledge and experience on railway safety would contribute to the existing as well as newly developed railway networks in India, thereby promoting safe operations and appropriate maintenance.”
The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) owns the investigation expertise in train collision, train derailment, train fire, level crossing accidents, accidents against road accidents, other accidents with casualties and heavy property loss without casualties.
Established by a specific law as an incorporated administrative institution under the Government of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) aims to promote international cooperation as the sole Japanese governmental agency in charge of ODA implementation. JICA is the world’s largest bilateral donor agency. JICA works as a bridge between Japan and emerging countries, and provides assistance in the form of loans, grants and technical cooperation, so that the emerging countries can strengthen their capabilities.
