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The Railways ministry Tuesday renewed an existing pact with the transport department of Switzerland for technological collaboration, track maintenance, and infrastructure modernisation in the rail sector. A fresh Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport and Communications (DETEC) of the Swiss Confederation via video conferencing.
The original MoU, signed on August 31, 2017, was valid for five years. In October 2023, the Swiss side had shown keenness in renewing the pact on rail sector cooperation.
At the MoU signing ceremony, Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said that some of the good practices of Swiss railways can be replicated at a much larger scale in India. “There are many interesting technologies, especially some of the conventional technologies, like the way tracks are maintained, managed and built. Many of these technologies will help Indian Railways in achieving a better safety record and achieving better maintenance practices… We have a lot to learn from each other in the sense that while our network is very large, some of the good practices from the Swiss railways can be replicated on a much larger scale in India,” said Vaishnaw.
A ministry official said that before the signing of the MoU, a Joint Working Group was formed to explore various areas of cooperation between the Indian Railways and its Swiss counterpart.
Swiss Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal DETEC Albert Roesti said Switzerland’s advanced railway technology will benefit Indian Railways by improving operational efficiency, safety standards, service quality and railways infrastructure development.
The Indian Railways is already using some of the advanced technologies of Switzerland, which was adopted after the approval by the Research Design and Standards Organisation. Electric locos — WAG 9 and WAP 5 — were imported from ABB Switzerland in the early 1990s. Huber Schuner, a firm based in Switzerland is an approved supplier of cables for electric locomotives. Arthur Flury, a firm based in Switzerland is an approved supplier of short neutral section assembly and has been supplying to Indian Railways for more than 20 years.
