Central Railway to track relief vans via GPS

The CR's fleet is always in a state of readiness

The Central Railway (CR) on Friday announced that the Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMV) in their fleet have been equipped with satellite tracking Global Positioning System (GPS) to ensure speedier aid in case of major accidents.

The ARMVs and accident relief trains (tool van, cranes, and self-propelled accident relief vehicles) are vital for rescue and restoration work during rail emergencies. Presently, the CR has a fleet of 31 accident relief trains spread over five divisions of Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Bhusawal and Nagpur. They can now be live-tracked on Google Maps and on mobile app in real time. The technology has been developed internally by CR's mechanical department.

Manned by skilled staff, the accident relief vehicles are equipped with medical provisions, rescue material and lighting equipment. "The rail accident relief medical vans are state-of-the-art, but it was difficult to track them in real time. We had to rely on human communication. Now, with the enabling of satellite trackers, they will be available for faster disaster management work," a senior official said.

A three-coach Self-propelled Accident Relief Train (SPART) capable of running with the maximum sectional speed for quicker initial response has also been introduced, and the existing locations of Accident Relief Trains (ART) and ARMVs have been rationalised for faster availability at site. These vehicles are kept in a state of readiness with full scale mock drill exercises.

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