Guwahati, Sept 6 : Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has bagged the PMI South Asia Award for Micro Project of the Year with its entry, “Intrusion detection system for saving lives of elephants.”
The award was conferred on NFR at a ceremony held in Chennai recently. This is for the first time ever that a zonal railway under the Ministry of Railways has bagged this award since its inception in 2009, an official statement said here.
Bharat Electronics Limited bagged the runners up award.
In 2022, the micro project award was bagged by IBM. Many reputed organisations participate in the prestigious annual award every year showcasing their innovations.
Notably, the intrusion detection system (IDS) is an eco-sustainable solution to protect elephants and improve mobility in train operations. The system is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and existing optical fibre will be used as sensors to identify movements of wild animals at locations and alert control offices, station masters, gateman and loco pilots.
It uses a fibre-optic based acoustic system working on the principle of dialysis scattering phenomenon to sense the real time presence of elephants on the track.
The AI-based software can monitor unusual movements up to 40 km on either side of the main unit. In addition, the IDS will also help in detecting rail fracture, trespassing on railway track and alert about disaster mitigation owing to unauthorised digging near railway tracks, landslides near tracks, etc.
“After the success of the pilot project on IDS that was undertaken by NFR in Dooars area under and Lanka – Hawaipur section under Lumding Division in Assam, the system will now be gradually installed in all other elephant corridors spread over NFR for which a sanction of Rs. 77 crore has already been received,” a statement said.
It is important to mention here that the pilot project has already been successful in saving the lives of many elephants approaching railway tracks from being hit by trains.