IIT, Railways make safety device

The IIT-Kanpur and Railways have jointly developed a device which could help detect any damage to or uprooting of the rail track and excess load in wagons of goods trains.

The Wheel Impact Load Detection System was installed at Ajgain railway station on Kanpur-Lucknow route on an experimental basis and after the success of the three-year trial, a Chennai-based firm has been given the task of manufacturing the device, Professor N S Vyas of the IIT's Mechanical Engineering Department told PTI in Kanpur on Monday.

In the next three months, the device would be installed at nine different railway stations of the country, including Chennai, Mughalsarai, Vishakapattnam, Bhilai, Hubli, and Asansol, he said.

There was a plan for installing this device in 256

places of Railways' freight corridor in the near future. Vyas said the WILDS, jointly developed by Research, Designs and Standards Organisation, Lucknow and IIT-Kanpur, works in the same way as an electrocardiogram, he said.

Installed at the railway line, it can spot any defect on the track and after a goods train passes, it can detect any damage to its wheels or excess load in wagons, he said.

This information then passes to the control room of Railways. With the help of this device, the Railways could also come to know about any attempt made by anti-social elements to uproot the railway track and possibility of a mishap could be averted well before the time, Vyas said.

Similar but high-cost versions of the device were in use in the US, he said.