‘Baby Simran’ to help people track trains

Commuters now no longer need to depend on muffled rail announcements for train delays. They can just dial a number and get the information themselves.

The Indian Railways is about to redefine rail travel by devising a new satellite-based technology to help commuters waiting at stations to track down the exact location of their train. The project will first be launched for the Rajdhani Express trains.

Called Baby Simran, the official name of the project is Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN), an ambitious project that the ministry has been working on for the last four years.
A top Mumbai-based official said, “The Research Designs and Standards Organisation and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have been working on the project, which will be launched soon. Four trains would initially be installed with Global Positioning System equipment.”

“It’s a Rs100 crore project. The project works on the principles of GPS navigation and radio frequency. The process also involves digital mapping of stations,” he said. “Once this is done, a passenger will come to know the exact position of a train by sending an SMS. The GPS device will help tracking down the exact location of the train and also monitor the train’s speed,” said the official.