Indian Railways (IR) has launched the project to GPS track 300,000 freight cars along the way to pinpoint their exact location.
As part of the Wagon GPS Project (WGPS), the Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) has invited expressions of interest to participate in the knowledge gathering exercise.
The exercise is aimed at designing or identifying a suitable navigation satellite receiving device suitable for installation in IR cars and capable of operating safely and accurately under IR working conditions.
While Indian Railways is expected to only mandate the use of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) in production systems, it may permit other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) under certain circumstances.
Railways want to use the data from GPS-enabled wagons to improve their transport and operational planning by gaining insight into the movement of goods. The requirement is that freight wagons must be appropriately mapped and visibility of real-time operations must be provided to the organization.
It would also reduce cases of “lost wagons” and theft of goods from open wagons, which have long been a concern for railroads.
Whilst instances of lost wagons are rare, given the volume of freight movement by rail, they are significant enough to be a cause for concern.
According to an ET report, 8,000 tons of waste coal (coal washing by-products with some calorific value) landed in Madhya Pradesh from Jharkhand in August this year.
IR carried 1230 million tons of cargo in 2020-21. In freight traffic, IR runs around 8,500 trains a day. The National Rail Plan envisions Indian Railways carrying 45 percent of the nation’s freight traffic by 2030 and maintaining that level by creating capacity ahead of demand.
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