Travelling by train without knowing how long it
will take to reach or waiting for a train with no word on its exact
arrival or departure time may soon be history.

The Railways plan to make available real-time information about the
exact location, speed and estimated arrival time of all major Mail
and Express trains at the click of a mouse. Moreover, LCD screens
installed inside coaches will inform passengers about the distance
and the estimated time the train will take to reach a destination.

Having successfully tested the Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation
(SIMRAN) system for almost all Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains over the
past one year, the Railways Ministry plans to formally implement this
system.

Developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and the
Railways Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow
under the Technology Mission on Railway Safety, SIMRAN is a train-
tracking system which uses Global Positioning System (GPS) and
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) to collect and
disseminate information about the location, speed and direction of
trains.

The train locator unit installed in a train identifies its
latitudinal and longitudinal values and speed by receiving
information through GPS satellites. This information is then
transmitted to the central server (currently located at IIT-Kanpur)
using the GSM system. Once processed, this information is uploaded on
the internet.

A dedicated website, providing information on the movement of
Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, has already been developed but is yet to
be unveiled for public use. Currently, information is available
with a time-lag of three minutes but the Railways claim that this
can be brought down to less than a minute.

The RDSO, which has already submitted a detailed report on the trial
of SIMRAN to the Ministry, has given the green signal. "Despite
technological challenges, the system has been tested successfully and
the results are satisfactory," RDSO Executive Director M Alam told The
Indian Express from Lucknow.

The train locator unit costs Rs 45,000 apiece but the price is
likely to come down once mass production of the unit begins. Apart
from uploading train movement information on the internet, the
Railways plan to make it available on platforms on hi-definition
coloured LED boards. Around 100 Category A and B stations are likely
to have such boards in place by next March.

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