"Indian Railways will continue to move ahead at pace of modernity, this is Modi's guarantee," says Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

By Nishant Ketu
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 12 : In a significant stride towards modernizing the Indian Railways, an Operational Control Centre (OCC) of Dedicated Freight Corridor located in Ahmedabad was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
This centre serves as the nerve centre for entire Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) (1506 Km), which connects Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to the JN Port in Mumbai, traversing through the state of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The Union Minister expressed confidence in the swift progress of the rail network under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Vaishnaw emphasized that Indian Railways will continue to move ahead at the pace of modernity, which is Modi's guarantee.
Talking to ANI, Vaishnaw said, "This OCC house is not only a technological marvel but also incorporates sustainable practices. It has a video wall of approximately 70 metre long, two war rooms and one Disaster Management Room. The video wall of the OCC provides real time position of trains running."
The Union Minister said, "Through this we can track diagram of all the stations and yards and also the automatic block sections in between the stations to show the complete track lay out, status of points, aspect of signals and route set indications in real time to provide Controllers an overview of complete system."
Vaishnaw further stated that the OCC enables mission critical communications, manages train operations and improves efficiency of train operation through informed decision making.
From the centre, engineers and technicians can control the entire WDFC rail system, signaling, power supply, and track safety.
Vaishnaw said, "The OCC has equipped with modern design interiors, ergonomic user interfaces, and best-in-class acoustics. It is also equipped with advanced technologies and applications, such as the Train Management System (TMS), Global System for Mobile Radio Communication for Railways (GSM-R), Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA), Control Office Application (COA), Dedicated Freight Information System (DFIS), Freight Operation Information System (FOIS), and Crew Management System (CMS)."
It is pertinent to note that the total area of the OCC Complex is 3.07 acres.
The OCC building, covering 12,867 sqm, embraces green building concepts with solar power, rainwater harvesting, and centralized monitoring through a Building Management System (BMS).
It is designed to facilitate mission-critical communications, efficient train operations, and informed decision-making.
It also notable that the entire rail operation of the WDFC is managed by the Controllers from various core specializations of rail system, who are the integral part and parcel of the theater portions of the OCC/WDFC.
The OCC is connected to all the stations of WDFC as well as Divisional HQ of IR on dual OFC system.
In case of failure of any one OFC, station data get immediately transferred through the other OFC. Predictive Maintenance System enabled by Artificial Intelligence is also planned.