Gone are those days when you have to wait for hours in the station because your train gets delayed. Indian Railways has joined hands with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to ensure real-time tracking and maintain punctuality of trains.

The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), the information technology arm of the Ministry of Railways has collaborated with ISRO to implement Real-time Train Information System (RTIS) project in trains. Indian Railways has installed a GPS aided geo-augmented navigation system (GAGAN) based devices on locomotives to acquire train movement data. With the help of the new navigating system, Railways will be able track the real-time data of trains like arrival and departure and run-through timings at the stations in a particular route. As the tracking devices have been installed in the locomotives, the trains hauled by such locomotives can be easily monitored and tracked by the RTIS system.

This technology will especially come handy at the time of major rail accidents. The satellite will help to point out the exact location of the trains and topography. This new device will also help railways to secure unmanned level crossings with remote sensing facility.

Last year, the trials for this system have been done on New Delhi-Guwahati and New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani trains on six electric locomotives. About 99.3% of real-time reporting of arrival and departure timing updates have been observed, said Indian Railways in a press release.

In Phase-I of the much-awaited RTIS project, the real-time tracking device have been installed in more than 2600 locomotives, said Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways in Lok Sabha. Out of these, 103 RTIS devices have been installed in Central Railways' passenger locomotives. Railways has already sanctioned an additional fund to install RTIS system in 6,000 more locomotives.

Indian Railways aims to provide accurate train running information to all the passengers with this new GPS enabled tracking system. The RTIS system will help to improve the efficiency of train control. The emergency messaging between locomotive and control centre will become easier and hassle-free.

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