Real-time monitoring of more than 700 trains including passenger as well as freight trains, has been started by the Railways. The trains are fitted with GPS and real-time monitoring is done with the newly designed system Control Office Application (COA).
The COA system is designed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after the Indian Railways collaborated with ISRO. The monitoring of passenger and freight trains will make it easy to track them and automatically feed the control room about their movement in the track. The system will also help in tracking the movement of trains between two stations.
Besides monitoring real-time movement of passenger and freight trains, the COA system designed by the Indian space agency will also help railways in avoiding theft of coal, oil and other materials transported by freight trains.
The continued theft of goods was causing loss to the Railways as freight service is its prime revenue source. The new system will help the Railways modernise the control room and rail network making the train movement across the network an efficient one.
Arun Kumar, Director-General of RPF, said, “Now it will not be easy to stop freight train between stations. Anybody who attempts to commit theft or steal goods will be caught red-handed.”
