‘Third eye’ to help trains spot track obstructions

Ahead of the approaching winters, Indian Railways will get a special device called the ‘Trinetra’ or ‘the Third Eye’ from January to detect obstruction on track to prevent mishaps. India would, in fact, be the first country to use the radar and laser-based terrain imagining vision system.

Trials for the said project are already being carried out in Bengaluru and the first pilot trains on this device would run from January.

The first of its kind device also records all the events on the track.

The ministry of railways had invited global tenders from companies to design, develop and implement Trinetra for locomotives in a phased manner. Many companies, including those from Israel and the UK had shown interest in designing the equipment that can give loco pilot (drivers) vision to see images of objects on track in a range of 1km on a display panel inside the locomotive. But the ministry has zeroed in on Tata to carryout trials, which is being done in Bengaluru.

Sources said that for the first time, infra-red and laser technology would be used by any railways in the world to prevent collision. “No company has this kind of technology available as of now, but they approached us that they can design. Such kind of technology so far has been used only in combat activities,” they said.

Locomotive drivers rely purely on visual clues and visual images besides signal to look out for obstruction on track ahead to prevent mishap. The objective is to enable the locomotive drivers to visualise and warn about such infringing objects from a reasonable, far away, distance to enable them to apply brakes sufficiently in advance to stop the train.

The technology can do thermal imaging and shows pictures of obstruction like trees, boulders, humans, stranded vehicles and moving object like another train. As per the last NCRB data, nearly 27,000 people died in train accidents in 2014, with most deaths due to fall from trains or collision with people on tracks.

The equipment will have all the necessary cameras, antennas, sensors for visualizing the track ahead in the direction of motion which shall be mounted on either ends of the locomotive. The display should not distract the driver with flashes, alarms during normal condition but warm them about images likely to pose danger in red colour.

Specifications and design of critical components shall also be approved by RDSO (Research Designs & Standards Organisation), railways research arm, before they are fitted.

Railways want that device must work in day as well as at night, all types of weathers types like dense fog conditions, with uniformly consistent results even in difficult terrain areas.