New Delhi, Sept. 27 : More than 150 representatives from 15-20 countries including USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, and UK will participate in the International Railway Safety Conference (IRSC), scheduled to be held in Goa from October 1.

The five-day conference is being hosted by the Indian Railways and the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd.

The conference is an annual event which will be attended by railway safety managers, safety regulators and accident investigating agencies from all over the world.

Railway safety practitioners and other experts from all over the world including India will share global experiences and best practice on ‘Emerging Dimensions for Railway Safety’ during the conference.

It provides a platform to the delegates from various international railway systems to exchange ideas and information on the current safety issues faced by them.

This conference offers immense opportunities for the world Railways help formulate future possibilities.

Thirty one technical papers will be presented during the conference to specifically dwell upon subjects like integration of safety management in development planning, impact of safety enhancement systems and diagnostic technologies on human performance, emerging trends on mitigation of third party hazard, and trends and practices of safety regulation and accident investigation.

Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu will inaugurate the conference. K.M.Singh, Member of the National Disaster Management Authority, V.N.Mathur, Member Traffic, Railway Board will also present at the inaugural function.

The first IRSC was hosted by East Japan Railway in 1990 in Tokyo, Japan. Since then, this has been held every year.

Indian Railways’ sustained efforts during the recent past have resulted in more than 50 per cent reduction in consequential train accidents which have come down with from 0.65 accidents per million train kilometers in 2001-02 to the order to 0.23 in 2006-07. (With inputs from ANI)