Date:08/07/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/07/08/stories/2005070802970700.htm

Back Rlys to use radio frequency identification to track wagons

Mamuni Das

New Delhi , July 7

THE Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) plans to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to improve the wagon management system of the Railways. CRIS proposes to have a RFID tag or chip embedded in all the wagons and provide sheds with handheld devices that would read these chips and thus register the data. Following this, the details can be fed into the Indian Railways system to help track wagons accurately.

At present wagons are tracked manually. While running trains are tracked every two hours, wagons are generally tracked every cycle ranging from 4-5 days. "The issue with manually tracking the wagons is that there are chances of human error," the CRIS Managing Director, Mr M.R. Ramakrishnan, told Business Line.

For instance, an official at the shed notes the serial number of each wagon and then it is fed manually into the Railways system. Thus there are two points where human error can occur — while recording it on paper and while feeding it into the system. Each wagon generally carries a combination of about 12-14 numericals and alphabets - with 5-7 digits signifying the wagon number, 2-3 alphabets indicating the owning railways and 4 alphabets indicating the wagon make or type. An interchange of digits/alphabets could result in conveying completely different information. Each error could result in generation of conflicting reports and has the potential to corrupt the entire database, he added.

To start with, the autonomous body responsible for all IT-related activities of Railways plans to run a pilot project by putting RFID chips in 1,000 wagons in the East Coast Railways.

"The 1,000 wagons would be BOBRNS or open wagons with bottom discharge system, primarily used between Talcher and Paradip. We have submitted the proposal to the Railway Board and are awaiting its clearance," Mr Ramakrishnan said. The proposal was sent to the Ministry about a month ago.

Cost of implementing the pilot project would be about Rs 2 crore. After obtaining the clearance, CRIS would float a tender for the project. For implementing RFID in the entire Indian Railways' wagon fleet, around Rs 30-40 crore would need to be spent, he added. Internationally, there are some Railways in the US that are using RFID to track their wagons, he said. RFID technology provides wireless tracking capabilities of assets and is used in various sectors worldwide ranging from retail, food & beverages, pharmaceuticals to various transport applications.

In the railways, RFID tags attached to its mobile assets provide accurate in-transit information about its fleet of equipment, thus resulting in improved service, scheduling, tracking and reduced manual errors. CRIS is a project-oriented autonomous body engaged in development of major computer systems on the Railways. It works towards avoiding duplication of efforts by individual zonal Railways, ensures standardisation of computer hardware and software on the Railways. It is also required to undertake design and development of major applications on Railways.