IR Undertakes RFID project for Automatic Identification & Data Collection of Rolling Stock

On January 30, 2020 the Indian Railways(IR) undertook the Radio-frequency identification (RFID) project which aims for automatic identification & data collection of rolling stock with focus on improving the safety and reliability. Two works for the RFID project have been sanctioned by the Railway board worth Rs.112.96 Crores where coaches and wagons are to be RFID-tagged. The project is spearheaded by the Rolling Stock Department of IR and will be implemented fully by 2021.RFID project for Automatic Identification & Data Collection of Rolling Stock:

i.Make in India initiative: The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS, the Information Technology arm of the Indian Railways), GS1 India (global standard) and the Indian Industry have come up to implement in the Indian Railways(IR) in alignment with ‘Make in India’ initiative.

ii.GS1 & CRIS work: The GS1 will ensure the work quality and proper adoption of international standards while development and validation of solutions based on GS1 has been done by the CRIS.

iii.Project features: Real time visibility of railway wagons through the National Rail Network(NRN) with the help of RFID technology with GS1 global standards for unique & universal identification will be enabled. The project will also enhance operational efficiency.

• The other features include RFID readers with equipment such as Train Presence Detectors (TPDs), trackside condition monitoring equipment etc.
• Automating information capture about assemblies and components is a key element in the Indian Railways implementation of Industry 4.0(next level automation trend).

iv.RFID tag testing: Across all locations of the country the RFID tags will be used with GIAI-202 standard designed by CRIS. this GIAI-202 encoded tags were successfully tested at a speed of 182.7 kmph.

v.Implementation plans: Nearly 3,50,000 rolling stocks are expected to be tagged by 2021. So far approximately 22,000 wagons and 1200 coaches have been fitted with RFID tags.

• Additionally, around 3500 fixed RFID readers are expected to come up where communication will be done to a central control center using GS1’s LLRP (low level reader protocol) standard.

About Indian Railways (IR):
Fact- IR is one among the largest Railway systems in the world carrying about 23 million passengers per day and over 3 million tons of freight every day over 65000 route kilometers.
Founded- 16 April 1853.
Headquarters- New Delhi.
Union railway minister- Piyush Vedprakash Goyal.
Minister of State(MoS) for railways- Suresh Chanabasappa Angadi.