Indian Railways joins hands with ISRO for safer train travel

New Delhi: Indian Railways has joined hands with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for devising safety mechanisms to make train travel safer in the country.

The Railway ministry took this step owing to the recent derailments in various parts of the nation, Union minister Piyush Goyal said.

The Railway minister further stated, “We met ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar few days back and Indian Railways has decided to work with the RailTel to explore use of space technology for safety in railways.”

Goyal said, "Safety is very pressing and urgent need. The discussion which we had was very eye-opening in some sense for me but also very exciting in terms of possibilities that open for engaging with space technologies that ISRO has developed, helping in bringing safer travel to Indian railways.”

It is to be mentioned that a slew of train derailment incidents have marked the last few months following which the former railway minister exited the offices in the Cabinet reshuffle early this month.

Also Read: Piyush Goyal stresses on railway safety, track renewal

What else Goyal stated about the tie-up:

• Railways have been an early adopter of computers which could have been also expanded for various operational processes like safety.
• Way back in 1960s, railways started using computers in a small way and by 1985 you had passenger reservations system all computerised while banking started using computers in 1990s.
• It was quite an interesting fact for me that in late 1960s railways started using computers but I do wish we had expanded those frontiers much to bring technology for safety for example.
• Modern technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are going to change the way the world works.
• India has opportunity to look at what is latest across the world and bring it to the country.
• I have asked RailTel to look at a programme to connect thousands of railway stations with wi-fi.
• We can also provide wifi connectivity facilities to the villages around railway stations and get rural India also connected with new age technology.
• Round the clock access of connectivity and electricity is dream of billions of Indians and the government is making efforts to achieve it.

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