Western Railway and Central Railway adopt innovations for smooth train services this monsoon in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Western Railway and Central Railway on Sunday announced multiple innovations that have been adopted for monsoon preparedness. This includes pulse radar-based water monitoring system at sensitive bridges, remote-operated floater cameras for capturing images of culverts/bridges and point machine covers which ensure protection in flood-prone zones of suburban railways. A point machine (next to tracks) allows trains to cross from one track to another by connecting lines.

Central Railway chief spokesperson Swapnil Nila said the suburban railways were actively engaged with a mission-oriented approach to ensure uninterrupted train services during monsoon.

"We have developed point machine covers, which have been implemented at 231 identified flood-prone locations across the CR network, ensuring widespread protection and reliability. Reduction in point machine failures during flooding significantly improves operational efficiency This enhancement eliminates the need for manual clamping of points, which are traditionally required during such failures," he added.

Western Railway chief spokesperson Vineet Abhishek said: "We have set up a pulse radar-based water level monitoring system at sensitive bridges, consisting of water level monitoring equipment and intelligent field devices. This system transmits water level data every 15 minutes via GPRS to a centralised data centre, which is then linked to the Railway IT app known as the Bridge Management system."

He added: "Officials receive SMS alerts for immediate updates on this app. Now, it is possible to monitor river water levels in real-time from any location through a basic Internet browser."