COIMBATORE: A total of two-speed guns would start monitoring the speed of trains in both railway lines passing through the Madukkarai forest range in the Coimbatore forest division in one and half months.
Sources said that Artificial Intelligence-based 360-degree hybrid thermal cameras would be fixed in towers around the same period as well. Forest department officials said that installing speed guns would help to check the speed limit and thus reduce the incidents of trains hitting the elephants.
“Currently, there is no mechanism to check the speed of the trains by the forest department officials and we are getting information about the speed of the train only from railway officials,” sources said.
A senior forest official, “We have planned to install one-speed gun in both the tracks and if loco pilots operate the train for over 65 kmph during the day and 45 kmph during the night, an alert will be sent to the range officer, forester and field level staff along with the railway officials. As per the recent Madras High Court direction, the loco pilot should follow this speed limit.”
A total of Rs 7.24 crore has been spent on setting up AI-based cameras near the railway track to detect the movement of elephants and deploy field-level staff to prevent them from coming near the tracks. Alert messages will also be sent to the railway officials and loco pilots to reduce their speed limit if an elephant is noticed near the track as part of precautionary measure,” the official said.
According to sources, currently, the forest department has installed five cameras on railway line A within a 1.78 km distance and the construction of the control room is also over. Likewise, a process is underway to fix more than seven such cameras in railway line B within 2.8 km. “The contractor has assured to complete the installation of AI cameras and speed guns within the next one and half months,” said the official.
More than 25 elephants were killed between Palakkad junction and Madukkarai railway station till November 30, 2021, in 1978.