In a initiative aimed at mitigating the risks associated with elephants trespassing onto railway tracks, R.N. Singh, General Manager of Southern Railway, accompanied by Arun Kumar Chaturvedi, Divisional Railway Manager, Palakkad, and other Railway officials conducted a comprehensive inspection of the entire elephant underpass between Madukkarai and Kottekkad stations recently.
Mr. Singh had sanctioned the work to instal ‘Elephant Intrusion Detection System’ at a total cost of ₹15.42 crore in the elephant underpass, covering both A and B lines between Madukkarai and Kottekkad stations of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
“OFC based Distributed Acoustic Sensing with AI based Elephant Intrusion Detection System” detects the elephant intrusion near railway track and generates audio/visual alarms to station masters and loco pilots in real time and the speed of the train can be controlled.
Mr. Singh also inspected the recently built second elephant underpass between Walayar and Ettimadai stations along with the officers of Palakkad division. He said Southern Railway was making all efforts to complete the ‘Elephant Intrusion Detection System’ as soon as possible.
Southern Railway has built two underpasses costing ₹11.53 crore between Walayar and Ettimadai stations recently to facilitate the safe passage of elephants.
The General Manager also reviewed the progress of works such as widening of embankments to facilitate the elephants to walk away from the track, cleaning the vegetation near the track to prevent the elephants coming closer to the track for food, and solar lighting for improving the visibility for the loco pilots onboard to spot the elephant at a distance during night.
