The Anti-Collision Device (ACD) manufactured by Konkan Railway (KRCL) in the early 2000s is now history. In a written reply made on Wednesday to a query in Parliament, minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain told the House that 'complex operational and technical problems were experienced during these (ACD) trials which could not be fully resolved by KRCL due to design limitation of ACD. As such, proliferation of ACD is not contemplated.'Gohain's reply was pertaining to the Anti Collision Device (ACD) developed by Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) which was provided as a pilot project on 1736 Route Kilometres on Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

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Gohain further told the House that the railways had planned for alternative Automatic Train Protection (ATP) Systems and Train Protection Warning System, pilots projects for which were being undertaken.

The ACD, invented by then KR managing director B Rajaram, was supposed to be India's biggest initiative towards having a homegrown mechanism to ensure trains din't collide with each other in what is among the world's densest railway networks. Rajaram, as mentioned in his blog posted in February this year, fought for the efficacy of the ACD over its European competitors like the European Train Control System (ECTS) by entering into debates with foreign experts in from of the full-strength Railway Board.

However, according to officials who have previously worked with KR, with the exit of Rajaram in 2005, the subsequent railway officials who took over KR neither had the technological adventurism nor the expertise of Rajaram to defend KR's creations like the ACD as well as the Skybus. The Skybus concept met its end in late 2011 after private firm Punj Lloyd, which had sough permission to market the Skybus concept, withdrew its application citing 'lack of commercial viability'.

Another problem, said a former top-ranking official, is that since the post of managing director of KR is fairly junior in the railway hierarchy when compared to general managers of railway zones, the ability of KR chiefs while maneuvering muscle their way through the railway board is limited..

Rajaram himself refused to get drawn into a debate and did not answer text messages sent to him by dna.