The Indian Railways is expected to invest approximately 23.5 million US dollars for procurement of machines and approximately 140 million US dollars for modernisation of workshops over the next one year. This was stated by Shri R.K. Rao, Member Mechanical while inaugurating a two-day International Seminar on “Railway Workshop Modernisation & New technology in Machine Tools” organized by the Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers, COFMOW Chapter, here today. Shri Rao said that now the concept of ‘workshop modernisation’ itself has undergone a sea change The rapidly growing Indian economy is making huge demands on the infrastructure and logistics and the sprawling rail network of the Indian Railways has a definite edge in providing the most critical input to the economy namely transportation. To retain this edge improve further, the Indian Railways have a massive investment plant of Rs. 2,50,000 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan i.e Rs. 50,000 crore a year, Shri Rao said.
A separate oerganisation by the name of COFMOW (the Central Organization for Modernization of Workshops) dedicated to modernizing age-old workshops, was set up with a World Bank loan in 1979. The initial task was to replace individual machines of pre-independence vintage on the condition basis. When this did not suffice, phased replacement of machines was resorted to an later machines were procured in batches as manufacturing lines for production of specific products with a predefined cycle.
Indian Railways is one of the single biggest units under one umbrella in the world. It has more than 50 independent Mechanical Engineering Workshops and Production Units which undertake manufacturing, overhaul and repair activities for locomotives, coaches, wagons and other railway assets. Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers has been actively engaged in dissemination of Railway Engineering knowledge among its members, industry and users through a large pool of distinguished technical experts. It provides an opportunity to its member industries to gain from larger context and knowledge pool.
During the two-day seminar, 30 papers will be presented by foreign as well as Indian Speakers who are leaders in their respective fields. Mr. Angelo Santanera from Italy, Mr. Rik Noppe from Belgium, Mr. Hofmann Matthias from Germany, Mr. Kumar Balan from Canada and Mr. Daniele Romanini from Italy are few of the distinguished speakers attending the seminar besides officers of Indian Railways who are responsible for production and maintenance of Railways rolling stock as well as machine tool maintenance in workshops and production units, RDSO, Railway Board and various PSUs. The Speakers would cover the areas concerning wheel machining automation, metal forming, metal cutting, metal finishing, rescue devices, measurement tools and role of simulators. The prominent foreign companies participating in the seminar are M/s Safop (Italy), M/s Fooke (Germany), M/s LVD Belgium (Italy), M/s Pama (Italy), M/s Niles (Germany), M/s Legris (France), M/s Jordi (Spain) and M/s Danobat (Spain).