Radio tech to the rescue of Central Railway in ghats and tunnels

Picture/Jayant Ramdasi

As heavy rain sets in, Central Railway (CR) has switched to its most reliable radio technology to manage the difficult ghat sections of Khandala and Igatpuri - leaky cable communication or radio communication. This technology is normally used in underground mining and caves.

"Real-time communication inside the deep tunnels has been the issue for train drivers and guards. Even a delay of a minute could lead to disasters. Leaky feeders or radiating cables have been proved to be very useful for this. This technology has been used in the Alps has been yielded great results," a senior signalling engineer said.

"The technology was, for the first time on CR, installed inside tunnel no. 49 (longest tunnel of 2.4km, in Bhor ghat) between Monkey Hill-Khandala stations in November 2019 at a cost of R2.47 crore," he said.

"This allows seamless communication inside the tunnel between guard, driver and Khandala station manager," the engineer added.

"This technology is of help in all seasons as it basically consists of a cable run along tunnels which emit and receives radio waves, functioning as an extended antenna to communicate seamlessly," he said.

CR Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar confirmed the development and said the technology will be extended to 17 other tunnels.

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