The new security warning systems for any unmanned railway crossings, which were developed with the help of the ISRO, are all set to be rolled out. There a number of things that the Government departments want ISRO to help with. Some of them are, making yoga popular, keeping a check on oil spills, securing any unmanned crossings at the railway stations, mapping areas of mosquito breeding and snake bites.

Around 15,000 officials from state and central governments were a part of the daylong meeting, which was held on Monday with the senior ISRO scientists. There was a long discussion about many different technological problems.

All the ministry departments stated that they wanted ISRO to train their staff so that there is help when it comes to space technologies. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has called this meeting as he was very overwhelmed by the ISRO facilities he noticed last year on his visit. The last final session of the assembly was held on Monday and Mr. Modi was a part of the entire meeting. Before this, eight secretaries discussed their presentations and summarised many improvements needed.

Narendra Modi has already made announcements of the new systems. He also stated that this technology will utilise similar technology, which helps airline pilots to alert their passengers before they are going hit an air pocket or when they are entering dense clouds.

The PM is also planning on finding new cost-effective ways to bring in new technologies to safeguard the country. He had spoken about this project to the scientist when he was in Varanasi few months ago. Mr. Modi is very happy that scientists took a note of it and found the correct solution in just four months.

This new technology is going to improve the facilities at the Railway Stations and save lives, as well.

Our Railway Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu is currently on a long trip. He will be visiting two nations during the entire week. Yesterday, the Railway Minister met Mr. Sinzo Abe, who is the Prime Minister of Japan. The two met at Tokyo and had a long discussion. It is heard that there will be cooperation between the two countries to bring in the zero accident target in Indian Railways.

Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu has already decided that he will be heading to South Korea next to explore any possibilities to get their co-operation for high speed bullet trains for Indian Railways. While the railways are facing a lot of train accidents in recent times, Japan is well-known for having a zero accident rate when it comes to the rail sector.

Besides that, Japan is also involved in the building of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. The railways are in course of importing around 40 high powered electric engines from it. The JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) had conducted a study of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route to test the feasibility of the high speed bullet train in the country.

It is heard that the Minister had discussed about the issues, which have been affecting the railways. There was also a talk about ways to improve and strengthen the cooperation in the railways with countries like Korea and Japan.

Railway Advisor, Girish Pillai has also accompanied the Minister on the tour. The Railway Minister will be returning to India by 13^th September, and before that, he is expected to see new and advanced signal systems and experience high speed services in both Japan and South Korea.

If all goes well, soon India will also have its first high speed bullet train. With this, Indian Railways will also have new and improved signal systems as well as zero accidents.

Indian Railway Finance Corporation is set to provide the rail sector a large amount of money, which is of Rs. 1,50,000 crore. This is a loan which will be provided to the rail sector.

This loan will be from Life Insurance Corporation and the instrument used will be a 30-year paper, which shows competitive rates for the Indian Railways.  The loan is going to be raised from LIC over 5 years. This money is going to be used to expand the railway systems. This money will also be beneficial for the delayed projects.

Since the railways cannot directly borrow and take services of IRFC, many funds will be raised by IRCON and RITES from LIC. It is heard that the other rail PSUs will be raising around Rs.17,000 crore funds this year from LIC.

The IRFC has managed to rise over Rs 1.3 lakh crores from investment markets for the Indian Railways in the past 26 years. Raising funds from LIC for railways is a win-win situation as LIC too will benefit from the projects. As for the rail sector, long delayed projects will be completed quickly and other projects can start up as well.

The railway has made a budget for the highest capital investment of Rs. 1 lakh crore for current fiscal. This also includes a support of Rs. 17,655 crore and Rs. 40,000 crore from the IRFC.

It is heard that the IRFC is more than happy to raise more and more funds for the Indian Railways. The IRFC will only earn marginal return of around 50 bps. There are interest and money risks, which are accepted by the Indian Railways. The loan is a 30-year lease, and within half of the time, the interest rate and principal have to almost be recovered by the financial organization.

We just hope that the money is utilised in modernizing and bringing new advancements to our rail sector.

Solar thermal plants will be put up on lands owned by the Indian Railways. This will increase the usage of renewable energy. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu confirmed this plan yesterday.

The minister stated that the sector needs to work towards lessening carbon emissions. He also added that traditional sources of coal have to be used less, and if we continue to use, then the carbon emission would not be reduced. By using innovative ways with the use of technology, we can reduce these carbon emissions. Suresh Prabhu is bringing in a lot of ideas for the betterment of the rail sector and currently wants to take actions to increase the use of solar power.

The Railway Minister says that the rail sector has already started the procedure of bringing in use rooftop of railway buildings to generate solar power. Not just this, but the harness of solar energy will be done by putting panels on the roof of the railway coaches. Apart from this, he added that the rail sector is planning on developing solar thermal projects to generate power. These projects will be set up on the Railway lands across the country. Other than this, they are making considerations for development of solar power generations under the Public Private Partnership model.

Suresh Prabhu has been constantly bringing in new ideas and development plans for the Indian Railways. In his initial financial plan, he had said that the government will help to set up 1000 MW solar plants in the coming five years. He also said that there is a need for energy audits to have a control over emissions and make effective usage of electricity.

Suresh Prabhu is not just setting up solar plants but is also getting a lot of investment for the Indian Railways. The finances will be used to modernise and develop the stations as well as improve the trains.

Not just for the development of the Rail sector, but Suresh Prabhu has also stated that in the next two to three months, there will be CCTV cameras in ladies coach. He stated that around 20,000 CCTV cameras are going to be installed in the upcoming two months. For now, this will only be a part of the coach trains across the country. The money used for this project will be from the Nirbhaya Funds. We just hope local trains and railway stations also get CCTV cameras and tight security to help all the women across the country.