NF Railway installs technology for alerts on water level rise

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has successfully installed a system based on radar technology at Saraighat Rail-cum-Road Bridge in Assam capital town Guwahati, which will alert the railway men regarding abnormal rise in water level of major rivers.

The system will automatically and continuously monitor the water level in Brahmaputra river and send SMS to pre-determined mobile phones at regular intervals, said NFR Chief Public Relation Officer P.J. Sharma on Monday.

"This automated system is an improvement over manual mode of recording in use so far. Soon it will be integrated with the railways Track Management System (TMS). Similar system will be installed in total 10 bridges within NFR soon," he said.

The move is part of a nationwide programme to adopt modern technology to alert the railways regarding abnormal rise in water level of major rivers, he aded.

"Railway men looking after the system will get alert signals as soon as the water level in the river crosses danger level, so that train services can be suitably regulated to obviate any danger. In this system, electro-magnetic waves generated in the instrument passes through the air and reaches water surface and comes back to the sensor," Sharma said.

"The distance between the instrument and water surface is calculated from travel time of waves. Thus, a very accurate and reliable level of water is found. From site, the data goes directly to the Master System through GPRS. Alert signals are automatically sent to cell phones and TMS through an Internet-based system," he added.

--IANS

ah/nir