[SatNews] Help is expected soon for Indian Railways...

The go ahead has been given for a Rs. 110 crore satellite-based system that will replace manual trackiing of trains to provide position information on a real-time basis. This information will be available to the public through Internet, SMS on mobile phones, call center, and through train indication boards at stations. It will also give information to onboard passengers through the provision of display system inside the coaches.

To keep track of trains, station masters currently call up the control room at the divisional headquarters each time a train passes through their station. As this is a manually controlled system, the information is sometimes inadequate. As per the plan, Railways is to install devices in all locomotives and stations that will receive dynamic data on train movement via satellite. The name of the incoming train, speed, time duration, and all additional relevant information required by passengers will be made available automatically once the system is operational. Trials are currently being carried out in certain Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains with various pilot projects, with encouraging results.

The system — developed by IIT-Kanpur and RDSO — uses global positioning system (GPS) and global system (GS) for mobile communication technology to transmit information. Additionally, digital mapping of 8,177 Indian Railways stations has already been completed. These maps can also be used for linking various station data, yard information, signal information, city and hospital information, all extremely useful during any emergency. Other advantages of this system is that information on each locomotive will be available on the main servers for analysis to increase railroad efficiences. (Source: NDTV)