New Delhi, Jun 13 (PTI) The Railway Ministry has asked three zones to procure drones on contractual basis for a pilot project to monitor and detect uneven loading in freight trains at various terminals.
According to experts, uneven loading has been one of the major causes of freight train derailment and the ministry wants to deploy drone technology to leverage its benefits in ensuring safety of train operations.
“With reference to the growing emphasis on safety, efficiency and technological modernization of freight operations, drone-based monitoring has been identified as a viable solution for monitoring of the loading process, to enhance detection and prevention of uneven loading of wagons at the terminals,” the ministry said in a letter dated June 10 addressed to three divisions — South Eastern Railway (SER), South East Central Railway (SECR) and South Western Railway (SWR).
“Competent Authority in this regard has decided to nominate SER, SECR and SWR to undertake pilots for deploying ‘Drone as a Service’ to be procured on contract basis for real-time surveillance, monitoring and detection of uneven loading at selected terminals,” it added.
Highlighting the project’s objective, the ministry said these zones will monitor load distribution patterns in loaded wagons, provide real-time aerial imagery/load profiling before and enable automated detection of unsafe loading or load imbalance through visual analytics.
“The Scope of Work may include but not be limited to the provision of drone-based services for monitoring and detection (through suitable software installed) of uneven loading, deployment of qualified drone operators with appropriate safety certifications, aerial scanning of rakes before dispatch from terminals, real-time transmission of video feed and images and monthly submission of data logs and exception reports,” it added. Urging the other departments to use drones for survey of difficult locations, the ministry said that they should identify one or two terminals handling substantial traffic and where high incidents of uneven loading are reported.
“Pilot may be conducted for three months. Zonal Railways are requested to initiate the process at the earliest and at the end of the pilot, a detailed evaluation report including its feasibility for Pan-India replication may be submitted at the earliest possible,” it added. PTI JP AS AS
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