The Indian Railways has collaborated with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to keep a check on accidents at unmanned railway crossings and to track train movements on real-time basis.
With increasing number of accidents at level-crossings, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (or NaVIC) will now be used to warn road users of approaching trains through hooters which are going to be installed at unmanned road crossings.
Director of Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), Tapan Misra said, “A hooter will be activated as soon as it gets signal from the IC chip installed on a train when its engine is at a distance of 500 metres to 4 km from the crossing. The hooter, linked to the navigation system, will thus warn road users about the approaching train. It will become louder as the train comes near the crossing and will fall silent after the train has passed.”
Misra also added, “Under the pilot project, IC chips have been installed on five engines of trains on different routes. The testing on the satellite-based hooter system has been going on since June to check if it is reliable and can function under different climatic conditions.”
There are about 18,000 manned level crossings and 7254 unmanned railway crossings in India which account for around 40% of accidents involving the railways.
This system will also help railways to track train movement on a real-time basis. For example, it will show the map area covered by a train and will find the exact location during accidents.
