HYDERABAD: While the image of the mangled coaches involved in the Kacheguda train accident still burns afresh, the onset of winter will lead to heavy fog and mist on railway tracks leading to poor visibility, increasing the risk of impending accidents.
Rigorous personnel training and equipment such as Fog PASS have been introduced by the South Central Railway to tackle the safety and punctuality of train transit to and from the zone.
Speaking to Express, an official source said, “Fog and mist on the railway tracks leads to poor visibility of signals and interruption in power supply and maintenance of signal gears. With an aim to assist the loco pilots in train movement during the foggy weather conditions, the fog PASS devices have been introduced. A global positioning system (GPS)-enabled hand-held portable devices that serves as an aid for the loco crew during foggy weather conditions, it provides an audio visual alarm wherever any landmark comes within the geo-fence range of the locomotive.”
The location of the stations, signals, warning boards, level crossing gates, as well as the whistle for level crossing (W/L) boards in the section is fed into the equipment. The device displays the speed of the locomotive and distance, as well as the time to reach the identified landmarks. Additionally, loco-pilots have been trained to ensure that the train speed does not exceed 60 kmph.