OREANDA-NEWS. December 15, 2011. As a pilot project, Indian Railways has installed early fire and smoke detection system on one rake of New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani train. Based on this initial trial, technical specification of the system will be reviewed. After successful field trials and design validation, further action will be planned.

 The following steps have been taken/proposed by the Railways to check the re-occurrence of fire accidents in future:

 (i) In Railway Carriages, fire retardant cable and multi-tier electrical protection systems are provided to prevent incidents of fire due to electrical defects.

 (ii) Introduction of fire retardant furnishing materials in coaches and regular upgradation of specification to international norms to delay fire propagation in coaches.

 (iii) Provision of fire barrier and thermic lock in vestibule doors to delay fire propagation in Linke Holfmann Busch (LHB) type of coaches.

 This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.