Taking a big leap, Indian Railways roll out its first ‘SMART Coach’
New Delhi, August 30: Taking a smart move, the Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal has given immense upswing boost to the infrastructure of railways. In a new move, the Indian Railways has just got its first “SMART” coach! The SMART coach has several new features that will go a long way in enhancing the safety and security of train journeys and enhancing passenger comfort.
Interestingly, The SMART coach has been manufactured by the Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli as part of the Make in India initiative. The SMART coach aims to provide world-class facilities to passengers with the help of an intelligent sensor-based system. With the use of this coach, Indian Railways aims to move to predictive maintenance instead of preventive maintenance.
This SMART coach has been built on the LHB-platform and comes equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and a centralized computer that in turn monitors all the sensors. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman of Railway Board inspected the first SMART coach and soon 100 such coaches will be rolled out.
Here is a list of the salient features the Smart Coach inherits:
· Helping in maintenance, the SMART coach has a “vibration-based self-power harvesting sensor” that is there on the axle box. This helps predict wheel defects, defects on the bearings, and a hard spot (defects) on the track.
· SMART coach has a Passenger Information and Coach Computing Unit (PICCU) a CPU that is similar to an industrial grade computer. PICCU will monitor 4 important areas of coach maintenance and passenger interface.
Ø Security and surveillance system: CCTV system with artificial intelligence capability will improve the security standards of the train and also help in keeping a check on the behavior of the railway staff.
Ø GPS-based passenger announcement and passenger information system and the digital destination board: The passenger information system keeps passengers informed about the current location of the train, expected time of arrival at the next station and the speed of the train.
Ø Coach diagnostic system: The SMART coach system can monitor the brake system and detect any default in it. This, in turn, can be communicated to the maintenance staff.
The coach also has an interface with other sub-systems like air conditioning, fire detection and alarm system, a disc brake system and water level indicator. The water level indicator would ensure that maintenance staff gets advanced information through SMS about the need to refill water.
The SMART coach offers Indian Railways a single window platform to monitor several key indicators of the train’s health that ranges from coach diagnosis to security and surveillance system. From a passenger’s perspective, the SMART coach boasts of a Wi-fi hotspot information system. This means passengers can connect their devices such as a laptop, tablet and mobile phones to WiFi and watch movies and play songs.