New Delhi: As northern parts of the country struggle with dense fog every winter season impacting visibility and causing delays in train services, Indian Railways have provisioned a GPS-enabled device ‘fog pass devices’ to deal with the foggy weather to ensure smooth rail operations, sources said. According to railways, the initiative marks a crucial step in improving the reliability of train services, reducing delays, and enhancing overall passenger safety.
Fog Pass Device is a GPS based navigation device that helps the loco pilot to navigate during dense fog conditions. It provides on-board real-time information (display as well as voice guidance) to Loco Pilots regarding location of fixed landmarks such as Signal, Level Crossing gate (manned and unmanned), Permanent Speed Restrictions and Neutral Sections.
The device displays approach indications of next three approaching fixed landmarks in geographical order accompanied with a voice message approximately 500-meter on approach. It prevents the loco pilot from disorientation due to dense fog, The loco pilot has to get signal aspects (Red, Yellow or Green) from the physical track. A senior official of Northern Railway said that the fog pass device helps to improve train operations but it is not a complete solution to deal with dense fog conditions as this device does not provide any extra vision to the driver.
It only alerts through display as well as voice guidance about the next three approaching signals, the official said. Every year, numerous trains either run late from scheduled time or get canceled due to dense fog. The fog pass device helps to improve running timing of the trains and ensure the safety of the passengers which is the prime responsibility of the railways, said a Railway official.
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The railway has introduced 19742 fog pass devices to navigate through foggy weather, railways said in a statement. As per the Railways data, the fog pass devices provisioned to zonal railways are Central Railways-560, Eastern Railways-1103, East Coast Railways-375, Northern Railway-4491, North Central Railway-1289, North Eastern Railway-1762, Northeast Frontier Railway-1101, North Western Railway-992, South Central Railway-1120, South Eastern Railway-2955, South East Central Railway-997, South Western Railway-60 and West Central Railway-1046.
