Indian Railways Ties Up With ISRO: Satellite Imagery To Be Used To Monitor Assets

In an attempt to ease the monitoring, maintenance, and management of various assets pertaining to the operations of Indian Railways, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been signed. This will include the use of satellite imagery to track encroachments around stations and to monitor land assets belonging to the Indian Railways.

Given the wide coverage of the operations of the Indian Railways, the management of the assets has become difficult. Alongside, regular encroaching of land around old and new railway stations continues to pose a problem for the authorities.

The mapping will include all the assets of the Indian Railways in order to eventually develop the Geographic Information System (GIS) portal. With a December 2018 deadline in sight, the MOU has been signed with the Centre for Railway Information Centre (CRIS). The Bhuvan Platform of the ISRO will be used for the satellite imagery. The MOU has been signed for mutual cooperation in multiple phases between the Ministry of Railways and ISRO.

The images obtained via satellite imagery will be compared at regular intervals in order to track and monitor encroachments, as per the press release from the Ministry of Railways.