GPS device on every locomotive, soon! Indian Railways is all set to embrace modern technology with plans to install a GPS device on every locomotive. This is being done in order to monitor every train on mobile phone, to know the live running status and exact location. Earlier this year, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha informed that the Railway Ministry in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is coming up with a Real-Time Train Information System (RTIS). The technology involves tracking of train by placing GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN) based devices on locomotives. Under the first phase of the project, nearly 2700 electric locomotives will be provided with GPS devices. Gohain also stated that the first phase of the project is likely to be completed by the end of this year.
Recently, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the national transporter was focusing on smarter project implementation. According to the minister, if the railways has to leverage digital technology, the basic ingredient is to ensure access to technology in the remotest part of the nation. Goyal also stated that the Indian Railways will have to start thinking, planning, and working smartly.
Interestingly Indian Railways has also rolled out its first SMART coach that makes use of sensor based systems and a CPU industrial computer that checks the health of the coach and tracks on a real time basis.
Other than providing GPS device on every locomotive, the railway minister also announced that almost 6,000 railway stations across the country will be provided with the WiFi facility in the next six to eight months of time. Also, in a bid to ensure last mile connectivity wherever the fibre optics are not available in the network, Indian Railways is working on a programme.
While speaking on the punctuality of Indian Railways, Goyal said that from April 1 onwards, the punctuality of train services has improved to 73-74 per cent as the national transporter has replaced the manual recording of time by station masters with data loggers. The data loggers have been placed at interchange points across the railway network, which will ensure computer generated time, he said.
