In a bid to keep an eye out on the oil and coal theft from freight trains, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has come out with its latest technology to keep a check in this regard. The latest surveillance technology will also be used to monitor the movement of passenger trains giving another boost to their safety.
The advanced satellite surveillance by ISRO for trains works on GPS systems. The system was earlier used to monitor the movement of trains as when they passed from some particular stations.
The Control Office Application (COA) system designed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has already begun real-time monitoring of over 700 trains, fitted with GPS (Global Positioning System). The system will help track movement of trains even between two stations. The Indian Railways has set the end of the Financial Year 2020 as the target date for the completion of this project.
“The new technology is expected to prevent theft of oil and coal from goods trains, as real-time monitoring would make it difficult to stop these trains at unauthorized stations or outer signals,” IPS officer and RPF director general Arun Kumar said.
The new Control Office Application (COA) system will make available the real time speed and location of the train. Presently only around 700 trains have been equipped with the required systems and the movement of these trains is being monitored by the application system.
This move by the respective organizations comes in the wake of complaints of theft of oil and coal from freight trains of the railways. The freight trains would be stopped at unauthorized stops with the involvement of notorious elements including employees of the Indian railways, finally coal and oil removed from the containers will be virtually untraceable after that. The freight trains which transport coal and oil (diesel and petrol), are major sources of earning for the Indian Railways.
“Now it will not be possible to stop the goods trains at unauthorized stations. If someone stops the trains and steals oil and coal, he will be caught red-handed,” Kumar said.
This monitoring system will also give a huge boost to the new dedicated freight corridors that are expected to be completed by 2020. When fully implemented these new corridors will have a total span of around 3300km. Capable of supporting trains up to 1.5 km in length at speeds of 100 kmph now combined with the extra security provided by this advanced monitoring systems will surely give a huge boost to the functioning of the Indian railways.
