Plan to install hi-tech devices at railway stations

PATNA: The East Central Railway (ECR) plans to install a sophisticated gadget — data logger, a la black boxes in aeroplanes — at each station under the Danapur division. The move is aimed at ensuring safety in the division, Danapur DRM Pankaj Jain said on Tuesday. The DRM said that each data logger costs Rs 4 lakh. The railways have decided to install the device at each station on the mainline section, right from Mughalsarai to Jhajha and on the Patna-Gaya route. The new device will connect each station of the division with the Danapur control room through a computerised link service. Besides monitoring the movement of trains, the data loggers would keep giving round-the-clock information to the Danapur control room about the position of trains running in the division, he said. The DRM said that the new technology would help controllers in keeping a track on the movement of trains. In case of any fault, the new device will transmit data which would be automatically displayed on computer screens at the control room. The data loggers will also record the information exchanged between the controllers and station masters while giving clearance to each passing trains at different stations in the division. In case of any mishap, the data loggers would also throw light on the lapses committed by the staff concerned, the DRM said. According to senior divisional telecom and signalling engineer Rajesh Kumar, this ambitious project would cost the railways a whopping Rs 3.25 crore. The railways plan to install data loggers on all the 53 railway stations on the mainline section, besides the 11 railway stations on the Patna-Gaya route. The data loggers would be installed at 64 railway stations. So far, data loggers have been installed at 25 railway stations on the mainline section and seven railway stations on the Patna-Gaya route, he said. The DRM further said that a new inquiry system would be introduced in the Danapur division soon. Passengers can seek information about the position of trains passing through the division by simply sending an SMS through their cellphones. The new inquiry system envisages installation of a device on the top of the railway engines. This device will transmit information regarding the position of trains via satellite. A trial demonstration of this device was successfully carried out on Monday, the DRM said. The railways also plan to introduce a new facility — voice recognising system — for the benefit of passengers. The voice recognising system will be directly linked with the Patna call centre of the railways whose telephone number is 139. The new system will enable passengers to inquire about the movement of any train in any part of the country, the DRM said.