Railways to use drone, satellite techno to monitor projects

Railways will rely on technological solutions for project management and monitoring

The Railways plan to use the latest drone and Geo Spatial-based satellite technology for remotely reviewing the physical progress across major projects, which would become operational in the next fiscal.

Presenting the Railway Budget for the 2016-17, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said the Railways would rely on technological solutions for project management and monitoring.

In this regard, it plans to use "the latest drone and Geo Spatial-based satellite technology for remotely reviewing the physical progress across major projects".

The Minister also said that in the next financial year, this would be operationalised for monitoring the progress on Dedicated Freight Corridor.

He said the Railways, which collects over 100 terabytes of data every year, plans to set up a special unit for transportation research and analytics which would help it in making optimised investment decisions.

Prabhu unveiled the proposal to set up a Special Unit for Transportation Research and Analytics (SUTRA).

"Data-backed decision-making is a hallmark of great institutions. Though Indian Railways, as an organisation, collects over 100 terabytes of data every year, yet it is hardly analysed to gain business insights," the Minister said.

One terabyte is equivalent to 1,000 billion bytes.

According to him, a dedicated, cross functional team called SUTRA would be set up for carrying out detailed analytics leading to optimised investment decisions and operations.

"This team would comprise professional analysts and best in class decision support systems and optimisation engines," he said.