CR installs RFID tags to ensure regular cleaning on trains

CR installs RFID tags to ensure regular cleaning on trains

Mumbai: The chances of your trains being cleaner than what it is at present has just got brighter. Making use of technology to ensure the people deployed to clean your train have done the needful, the Mumbai division of Central Railway has become the first railway zone in the country to employ Radio Frequency Identification  (RFID) tags for the purpose to ensure that housekeeping staff of running trains visits and cleans each compartment regularly, Central Railway has introduced radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

RFID tags, installed in each compartment, record time of visits by the cleaning staff. The technology has been introduced on three trains as of now. “After carrying out every scheduled morning/evening cleaning, the housekeeper will have to sense-read the fixed RFID tag of the compartment using a handheld device which will record the sensing time of tag,” said a CR release.

“On completion of trip of train, the data…Will confirm if each compartment was attended twice a day.” The tags are fixed near mirrors on the compartment wall.

While the old system was a manual one where the housekeeper- in-charge of cleaning the train- would sign a register to emphasis that the scheduled evening and morning routine had been completed, the new RFID system calls for the housekeeper to ‘sense-‘read’  the RFID tag with the help of a portable electronic hand-held device which will record the sensing time of tag.

“It virtually empowers the travellers to demand the housekeeper on running train any time. Soon this facility will be adopted by other units of Railways,” the spokesperson added.

The RFID based mechanism to ensure scheduled cleaning has already been started on train no. 12133/12134 Mumbai-Mangalore Express, 12137/12138 Mumbai-Ferozpur Punjab Mail, 12163/12164 Dadar-Chennai Egmore Express and 11019/11020 Mumbai-Bhubaneshwar Konark Express.

“Now, the beginning of RFID based monitoring mechanism will mark paradigm shift in the way the cleanliness of running trains were being managed so far. Such systems are classic examples of exploiting the potential of IT tools and will be milestones in honouring the government’s commitment of Swachh Bharat,” said the spokesperson.

The RFID move comes right after the Mumbai Division of CR has already started an SMS facility (on 58888) and a website www.cleanmycoach.com to take care of unscheduled demand of cleaning by passengers in running trains, which have proved very useful to ensure cleanliness, said a CR Spokesperson.