Flood monitoring device to avert train mishaps

Chennai: Moving ahead with the changing times, Southern Railway has come up with a new device that can gauge rising water levels appropriated using a solar panel – an innovation that could avert train mishaps in future during floods.

The ‘Flood Level Monitoring System’ consists of two micro devices, an electronic unit placed 500 meters away from a bridge and a radar system that senses the water levels is fixed at the pillars of a bridge.

“As per now, we have attached the devise at the Maruthaiyar bridge in Ariyalur and Korayar bridge near Tiruchy in the month of December during floods. We found it very effective as we received SMS alerts every 15 minutes providing information on the water level rising,” said M. Suyambhulingam, chief engineer, bridges department, Southern Railway.

The radar senses the water levels at periodic intervals and sends the information to the electronic unit, an iron box that consists of transistors that accepts the signals, which in turn sends the signals to the central server in New Delhi from where it is sent to the local servers on stations adjacent to the bridge where the device is installed.

The battery of the device is charged using a solar panel that is placed adjacent to the transistors in the electric box. As the water rises after every 0.5 meters after a marked point on the bridge, the radar signals will alert the railway officials with ‘caution messages’.

“The device if implemented before the recent floods in certain bridges at Chennai division could have prevented water overflow in certain bridges here in the suburban section. We will be implementing the device here at Chennai looking at its performance in Tiruchy and Ariyalur,” said a senior official in the electrical department, Southern Railway.  The devise that is assembled at a railway electrical unit in Noida costs Rs 20 lakh.