The Indian Railways is working with the Indian Space Research Organisation to make travelling by trains a safer experience, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
“Safety is a pressing and urgent need,” the railway minister was quoted as saying by PTI at the India Mobile Congress. He said that he met Isro Chairman AS Kiran Kumar a few days ago, and they discussed a range of issues.
“The discussion was eye-opening in some sense for me, but also exciting in terms of the possibilities that open [up] for engaging with space technologies that Isro has developed, helping in bringing safer travel to Indian railways,” he said.
Goyal’s statements come in the backdrop of a slew of rail derailments in the last few months during former Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s tenure. On August 19, at least 22 people were killed after the Utkal Express went off tracks near Muzaffarnagar. Less than a week later, the Delhi-Azamgarh Kaifiyat Express got derailed in Auraiya district, leaving at least a 100 passengers injured. These were followed by many other derailments that had no casualties.
Goyal added that the railways, which started using computers in the 1960s in a small way, could have expanded and used it for other processes like safety as well. Modern technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning will change the world, he said, adding that India must incorporate recent developments in science.
“I have asked RailTel to look at a programme to connect thousands of railway stations with Wi-Fi…we can provide villages around railway stations with Wi-Fi connectivity and get rural India also connected with new-age technology,” Goyal added.
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