New high speed accident relief trains

The Railways is in the process of importing a number of high speed accident relief trains to expedite rescue and restoration work after accidents. The trains will be high-speed, diesel powered self-propelled trains with a maximum speed of 160kmph. At present the railways have 27 self propelled accident relief trains with a maximum speed of 110kmph. Each diesel powered train will have three coaches and is estimated to cost around ? 40 crores. The first two trains will be imported entirely from Europe while the subsequent ones will be manufactured in India. Besides these high speed trains, the Railways will also import about eight hydraulic cranes with telescopic boom from Europe in its efforts to improve and reduce response time during accidents. The telescopic booms on the cranes enable rescue work to be done inside tunnels and bridges. The hydraulic cutters, spreaders and other hand operated tools on the cranes are useful for quick cutting of coaches for rescuing passengers trapped inside during accidents. The new cranes will have axle load capacity of 175 tonnes, compared to the existing 140 tonne cranes, of which the railways have currently about 69.