New Delhi: In an attempt to make unmanned level
crossings safer for road users, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has directed
the Railway Board to explore the use of geo-spatial technologies for the
purpose.
Such a technology combines global positioning
system (GPS), geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing. An alert
message is flashed automatically on the mobile phones of all the road users who
are in the vicinity of an unmanned railway crossing about the approaching
train.
With the use of this type of technology,
accidents at unmanned crossings could be minimised. This step will be in
addition to all the ongoing measures being taken by railways to control
accidents at such crossings, an official statement said today.
Following Prabhu's directives, a high level
meeting was held at Rail Bhawan today where representatives of Safety
Directorate of Railway Board, Research Designs and Standards Organisation (the
research arm of Railways), Center for Railway Information Systems (the IT arm
of Railways) and Indian Space Research Organization participated.
The meeting decided to take expeditious
necessary steps and prepare an action plan, said the statement.
PTI
