Jalandhar, January 3
Accidents and collision between trains would soon be a thing of past thanks to the world’s first microprocessor based anti collision device (ACD), developed by the Konkan Railways Corporation, which has almost completed its exhaustive trials on the Jalandhar-Amritsar section.

The highly sophisticated ACD, which is being termed as a saviour in the railway circles and has officially been named as Raksha Kavatch by the Railways authorities, has been fitted on about 100 locomotives, shuttling between Jalandhar and Amritsar. The trials, which have been confined only to the Jalandhar-Amritsar section in India, have been successful and showed that the device could effectively eliminate the possibility of trains running into head on collisions for any reason.

After the completion of trials during the next two months, the device, which cost about Rs 20 lakh, will be fitted into most of the trains in the country in a phased manner, maintained Railways officials, who claimed that it was for the first time in the world that any such device had been developed to curb accidents and collisions.

The device, according to Mr Rajesh Khare, a senior official with the Northern Railway, will function with the help of Satellite as it is based on Global Positioning System, which will enable it to communicate to the driver of a train in case another train is approaching from the opposite direction. “In case, the driver fails to take note of the alarm raised by the device, which will be a rarity, the train will stop automatically,” said Mr Khare.