Railway Equipment

ISRO-Made Chip System To Alert Users At Unmanned Railway Crossings

ISRO-Made Chip System To Alert Users At Unmanned Railway Crossings

New Delhi: The Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) has developed a satellite-based chip system to provide road users with access to the train at unattended transit points and to facilitate real-time tracking of train operations.

About 500 metres before the level crossings, the hooter will be activated through the integrated circuit (IC) chip, warning road users as well as the train driver near the crossing.

The hooter will be louder as the level crossing nears, and finally it will be silent after the train passes by.

On a pilot basis, the Mumbai and Guwahati Rajdhani trains will be equipped with this system.

Road users will be warned by hooters once a train approaches an unmanned level crossing as railways are installing ISRO-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips on locomotives of trains.

There will be hooters at 20 unmanned level crossings on Rajdhani routes for Guwahati and Mumbai, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.

More trains will be equipped with such technology in a phase-wise manner, according to the plan.
 

Besides alerting road users, the satellite-based system will also be used for tracking trains for disseminating information about their movement on real time basis.

This will be of great help to passengers as currently train movements are tracked manually.

Safety at unmanned level crossings is a cause of serious concern for railways and the public transporter is exploring various ways to address the issue.

There are about 10,000 unmanned railway crossings in the country which account for around 40 per cent of accidents involving the railways.

While the Railways have eliminated 1,148 unmanned crossings in 2014-15 and 1,253 in 2015-16, it has scaled up its target and now plans to eliminate all such crossings in the next 2 to 3 years, the official said.

Satellite-based systems will also help the application of railways in mapping, and technology will come in handy when the accident takes place to determine the exact location of the train and terrain.

Article from:

http://www.ndtv.com/