1st UITP India Roundtable for Indian Metros – ‘Digitalisation in Asset Management’

UITP India, supported by Indian Metro Rail Organisations Society (I-Metro) organised online Roundtable – ‘Digitalisation in Asset Management’ on 27 January 2022. The roundtable was successfully attended by 82 participants constituting members of I-Metro, an organisation of 15 Metro Rail, Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), and Mono Rail Systems in India, and UITP team. This is first of its kind roundtable organised by UITP for knowledge sharing among metro organisations in India. The panel of the roundtable had key international speakers joining online and speaking from Metro TMB Barcelona, SBS Transit Singapore, and TfL London.

The roundtable was kicked off by the opening remarks of Mr. Sandeep Sharma, Coordinator I-Metro briefing on I-Metro and its activities. Registered in the year 2018, I-Metro provides a platform for rail organisations in India to share their learnings and experiences and help create a resource of information for efficient decision making in rail based public transport systems in India. Ms. Rupa Nandy, Head of UITP India briefed explained UITP as an organisation, its working bodies and activities led by UITP India team. Corentin Wauters, Manager, UITP Metro Division highlighted on the structures, working bodies, and various sub-committees such as rolling stock, operations, and fixed installations committee working across different metro organisations around the world.

Mr. Ignasi Oliver, Head – Digitalisation and Innovation, Metro TMB Barcelona was invited as the first speaker to discuss ‘New Age Maintenance Techniques in Barcelona’. Mr. Oliver discussed the importance of condition monitoring and data analysis, and how these led to improvement in performance and cost reduction in operating metro systems. The historical data supplemented with real time helped to provide predictive maintenance. Lastly, he focused on developing a digitalisation strategic plan by working together across different departments in Metro organisations.

Dr. Tong Tat Tan, Head-Applied Technology, SBS Transit, Singapore discussed enhancing rail operations and maintenance through condition monitoring. Giving a brief background of SBS Transit, Dr. Tan discussed the needs, tools and technologies used by SBST to improve Conditional Monitoring such as online PD monitoring system and oil and dissolved gas analysis for Power Monitoring, motorised track trolley and automated track inspection for permanent way monitoring, wheel impact load detection system for rolling stock monitoring, and point machine monitoring for signalling system. As concluded by Dr. Tan, the use of conditional monitoring and new technology has proven to be useful in enhancing operation and maintenance operations of SBS Transit Rail.

Mr. Duncan Weir, Head of Tracks, Transport for London presented on the decision-making tools for Asset Management. Inspecting on the brief overview of track structures of different lines of London Underground through visual inspection, track quality inspection, and automate track monitoring system, Mr. Duncan explained how further decisions were taken to use the right decision-making tools to improve asset performance. Further, he focused on the need to use the data to develop an accurate asset condition register, measure and model residual life and develop modelling tools to better inform the decision making. The data driven decision making tools not only helped to understand the current condition of tracks but also helped to predict degradation, accuracy and improve efficiency.

The concluding session of the roundtable was led by Corentin, inviting all the speakers for a panel discussion on transitioning to predictive maintenance. Participants from different metro organisations in India raised interesting questions on predictive maintenance systems, condition-based maintenance, and digitalisation tools used in rolling stock. The roundtable provided an opportunity for participants to engage in an insightful discussion with speakers from leading metro organisations at the global level.