For the first time ever, Indian Railways will install black-boxes insider trains. As per some officials, these special journey recorders will have the capability to stop train accidents as well.
Meanwhile, worried over train delays, Indian Rail officials have announced several new measures to ensure that train delays don’t happen.
This year more than 70% of all trains have experienced delays, and this is not a good sign.
Black Boxes Will Stop Train Accidents
In a first, Indian Railways has decided to install black boxes across all trains. But here is a twist to the story: Black boxes in Indian trains will also help to stop train accidents.
Recently, the first batch of futuristic smart coaches was unveiled at the rail coach factory in Rae Bareli. Officials present there have declared that these black boxes will make Indian trains some of the safest in the whole world.
Rajesh Agarwal, general manager of Rae Bareli rail coach factory said,
“Smart coaches will be a game changer in the world of transportation. They can make railways as the safest mode of travel,”
Meanwhile, Chief design engineer, Indrajit Singh has claimed that these black boxes installed in trains are better than aircraft because they can now prevent accidents as well, unlike the black boxes present in aircraft.
Some of the features and capabilities of these new black boxes include;
- Monitoring temperature of all cables, wires and alerting the officials in case of any discrepancy observed
- AC units to be monitored automatically, and in case a unit is not working, a relevant alert would be issued immediately.
- Monitoring of train speed in real time.
- Smart CCTV cameras with real-time video output.
- Passenger Information System.
- Infotainment software and wi-fi access.
These new black-box-powered-smart-coaches have been dispatched to Research Designs and Standards Organisation, Lucknow for more tests.
Train Delays Getting Worse; Officials Worried?
Meanwhile, 2018 is proving to be the worst year for train delays – more than 70% of all trains running across India have got delayed this year.
Ashwani Lohani, Chairman Railway Board had recently initiated an urgent meeting of all rail heads of various divisions and asked some serious questions. General managers of Northern Railway, North Central Railway, Eastern Railway, North Eastern Railway, South East Central Railway, East Coast Railway, East Central Railways and North East Frontier Railway were present at the meeting.
At a time when Rs 10 lakh crore has been allocated for a high-speed rail corridor, and faster trains are being launched, 70% time efficiency of trains is indeed worrisome.
As per some reports, Lohani has asked the GMs of various railways zones to re-consider speed limits of some sections, so that trains are able to pass faster.
An official said,
“The Chairman Railway Board has ordered that the timing of more than half a dozen trains that are running too late for the last few days should be monitored,”
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.