BHUBANESWAR: Days after announcing measures for the installation of the intrusion detection system (IDS) on railway tracks in elephant movement areas to prevent jumbo and other wildlife deaths in train collisions, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) with the help of the state Forest Department has launched a joint inspection of the identified stretches for the intervention.
The survey work was taken up jointly by the railway and forest officials of the Keonjhar division last week after which the Keonjhar division proposed at least nine points of elephant movement with their GPS coordinates suitable for IDS installation. Similar survey will also be taken up on different stretches.
As planned by the ECoR, the project in the first phase, will be implemented on a 200-km stretch of six railway stations - Maneswar-Bamur, Turekela-Lakhna, Arand-Arang Mahanadi and Norla-Theruvali railway section in Sambalpur division and Kapilas Road-Rajathgarh-Angul, Rambha-Ganjam and Nayagarh-Porjanpur railway section in Khurda Road division.
Sources said a first round of meetings for implementation of the move also took place under the chairmanship of ECoR general manager Manoj Sharma earlier this week. “The firm that had helped the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in taking up the project successfully in Assam and North Bengal made a detailed presentation on technical aspects of the IDS before the ECoR officials during the meeting,” said an official.
According to ECoR officials, the IDS will help in detecting wild elephants approaching the railway tracks and alert railway officials to help avert mishaps. The system uses a fibre optic-based acoustic system, working on the principle of scattering phenomenon, to sense the real-time presence of elephants on the track. The optical fibre acts as a sensor to identify the movement of wild animals at locations and alert control offices, station masters, gatemen and loco pilots.
The IDS can monitor unusual movements up to a stretch of 60 km. It will also help in detecting rail fractures, trespassing on railway tracks and alert about disaster mitigation due to unauthorised digging as well as landslides near the railway lines. The ECoR has obtained a sanction of `79.12 crore for installing IDS at sensitive locations of elephant passing zones and elephant corridors in its jurisdiction.