By Greentech
Lead Team: Indian Railways has commissioned an Emission Test Car (ETC) at the
Integral Coach Factory (ICF).
This will be
stepping stone towards framing emission standards for long-haul diesel
locomotives and diesel power cars plying along suburban routes on its system.
The ETC is
the world’s first mobile emission testing vehicle in the rail sector. The new
system will put the Indian Railways on a par with global rail systems in terms
of green milestones and also pave the way for the Research Designs and
Standards Organisation (RDSO) to lay down standards and monitor locomotives for
compliance with emission norms.
The mobile
ETC can be moved to diesel sheds and coaching depots to measure emission levels
of diesel locomotives and diesel-powered cars.
The ETC uses
mass emission measurement equipment supplied by Horiba from Japan. It will test
locos for oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter, total hydrocarbons, methane
hydrocarbons, smoke opacity, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The ETC can be
deployed at any diesel shed across the 17 zones of the Railways.
Sanjiv
Handa, Member (Mechanical), Railway Board, launched the phase I of the
Enterprise Resource Planning initiatives in Indian Railways.
Launching
the ETC, Mr Handa emphasised on the need to build people and environment
friendly diesel engines, unlike the existing ones that not only pollute by way
of emission but by noise.
V.
Ramachandran, RDSO Director-General, said one of the immediate plans for the ETC
was to conduct a correlation exercise with microelectomechanical systems and to
pilot it on five diesel locomotives at the ICF loco shed.