Recently, a Chennai Metro train stopped midway, forcing passengers to walk through the tunnel to reach the station. Had the engineers been able to resolve the issue remotely, there was a good chance that the train would have reached the station.
The installation of a new “asset management system” software and its operationalisation in two months will make remote control possible from the Operations Control Centre. Then, minor issues can be fixed in minutes using the software, without technicians visiting the site.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL), the software was on trial for several months in all trains running in phase I of the project.
At first, a prototype was developed and after testing it several times, the final version was arrived at; this too went through trials.
“The idea behind bringing this system is that if a train stops halfway in a viaduct or tunnel and passengers are stuck on the train, we can see what the issue is from the control centre. In most cases, it could be a minor issue and service can be restored sitting at the centre itself,” an official said.
The system will display data of a train and send alerts on real time basis. This is then transmitted to the depot’s maintenance server and can be accessed by trained personnel.
“For many months now, as part of the trial run, the trains operated were monitored throughout the day to see if the train and the system are functioning without any glitches. And we have seen if the system has been transmitting data and giving alerts about the technical issues that arise,” another official said.
The new software would cover trains that will start running on the Washermanpet-Wimco Nagar stretch in two months.
