To curb the point failures and keep track record of maintenance of points and crossing Central Railway Mumbai division has developed an App that will not only prove help full in keeping the track record of maintenance of points but also keep a tab on the maintainers too.
Currently, Central Railway's suburban section witnessed on average over a dozen of points failures every month, which affect the punctuality of around 500 local trains.
Points and crossings are provided to help transfer railway vehicles from one track to another. It directly connects to the signalling system of the railway. In case of any problem with the connectivity of points, the signal becomes red and stops the movement of the trains in sections.
Confirming the development, a senior officer of CR said that the lack of timely maintenance is one of the prime reasons behind the point failures.
Currently, no tool is available for the remote monitoring of inspection and maintenance of gears of points and signals done by the maintainers. Apart from that, some of the staff is not aware of the maintenance schedule.
"This app will not only alert our signal maintainers but also teach them what to do and when to do," said Shivaji Sutar CPRO CR, adding that timely maintenance of points and crossing will definitely help us to minimize the signal failures.
This application will keep all records of inspection and maintenance activities, which can be monitored remotely.
Based on the database, the health of gear (points) can be monitored remotely based on the deviations from the previous readings and preventive maintenance can be done as per requirement.
As each entry is being saved with the timestamp so by crosschecking with datalogger events the authenticity of the record can be checked.
Apart from this, the App will help to identify overdue inspection and maintenance, which will prove helpful in work planning accordingly.
How does it work?
A Unique QR code is generated for each gear (points) and it will be pasted on each gear.
The maintainer has to scan that QR code using the inbuilt scanner of the App or using any QR code scanner application.
After entering the name and designation, the App will lead various maintenance and inspection activities to be done and provide a checklist for these activities along with the facility to measure various parameters measured.
On submitting the inspection details, it will automatically be updated in the Google sheet of that particular point in google drive. The maintenance record can be accessed using the application as well as directly through Google sheet link.
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