The Hindu Business Line : Railways to use RFID to track wagons, parcels — Magnetic strip-based tickets at Kolkata Metro to be replaced

Railways has been planning a pilot project to use RFID for tracking its wagon fleet. "We would extend the RFID tracking to the entire wagon fleet of Indian Railways if the pilot project is successful."

New Delhi , Dec. 28

INDIAN Railways is betting big on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

RFID technology provides wireless tracking capabilities of assets and is used in sectors such as retail, pharmaceuticals and in various transport applications.

The Railway Ministry plans to start tracking not just wagons but parcel bookings as well using RFID tags and readers. Similarly, tickets for Kolkata Metro, which are to be overhauled, will also be based on RFID, instead of the magnetic strips-based tickets that are currently in use.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is in talks with various RFID solution providers for these projects. Mr M.R. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, CRIS, said, "The parcel traffic in the Kolkata-Delhi route trains would be tracked to start with. This would increase the value proposition for our customers."

The Railways leases out certain sections of the passenger trains to courier companies. Courier companies can track the exact movement of their parcels using RFID. About 4,000-5,000 packets are handled between Kolkata and Delhi every day, said Mr Ramakrishnan.

"The RFID tags would be put on parcels before they are put on the train and would be taken off the parcels at the final stations," he said adding that CRIS is in talks with various RFID solution providers for the same.

Similarly, Railways has been planning a pilot project to use RFID for tracking its wagon fleet.

"We would extend the RFID tracking to the entire wagon fleet of Indian Railways if the pilot project is successful," he said.

Under this scheme, CRIS proposes to have a RFID tag or chip-embedded in all wagons and provide sheds with hand-held devices that would read these chips and register the data.

Following this, the details can be fed into the Indian Railways' Freight Operating Information System to help track wagons accurately.

Another area where RFID would be introduced is the Kolkata Metro where almost two lakh tickets are issued every day.

"At present, the tickets issued in Kolkata Metro are based on magnetic strips.

They have been in use for about 15-20 years and are damaged, " said Mr Ramakrishnan, adding that CRIS is looking for a low-cost RFID solution for Kolkata Metro.

Several RFID companies want to replace the entire ticketing system — including the one at the gates (that regulate station entry and exit) and the system for the Kolkata Metro.

However, the gates at Metro stations still have 10-15 years of life left in them.

"We are thus looking for such RFID-based tickets that can work on the gates," he said adding that CRIS is in discussion with some companies which can offer low-cost solutions.

The metro rail in Delhi has an RFID-based ticketing system.