NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is getting a third eye to check death and destruction on its tracks. India will be the first country to use radar and laser-based terrain-imagining vision system called Tri-Netra in railways for monitoring obstructions on tracks to prevent mishaps. The device will also record all events on the tracks for post-event analysis.
As per the latest NCRB data, nearly 27,000 people died in train accidents in 2014, with majority of deaths due to falling from trains and being run over.
The Ministry of Railways has invited global tenders from companies to design, develop and implement ‘Tri-Netra’ for locomotives.The cost of the idea—conceived by Hemant Kumar, member, Mechanical, Railway Board—will be decided after companies present their bids next week. Two companies from Israel and one from the UK have shown interests in designing the equipment that can give loco pilots (drivers) vision to see images of objects a kilometre away on a display panel.
“It is for the first time that infrared and laser technology is being used by any railways to prevent collision. None of the companies have this technology, but they have approached us that they can design it for us,” said sources adding that the technology is only used in combat.