Guwahati: In an interesting innovative initiative using Internet and GPS technology, Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway has developed a system for automation of water pumps at some select stations.

This system has been implemented at four stations of Rangiya Division in Northeast Frontier Railway namely Tezpur, Tangla, Majbat, and Rangjuli. It automatically runs pumps saving manpower and electrical energy.

Under this system, pump is attached with a unit based on mobile phone technology and command is given from Internet based program from where any pump can be switched on/off from any part of the world either directly or on scheduled programme based on requirement of water.

This is a self intelligent system. For example – if schedule for running of pump is from 7.00 to 8.00 hrs., and in between supply goes off in that condition whenever supply is resorted, system runs the pump automatically for remaining time of schedule and water supply is made available.

Other most important aspect of the system is that the health of pump is monitored every 15 minutes in the form of parameter such as running hour, voltage, current drawn and energy consumed. These parameters are saved automatically in a file in Internet and can be seen any time for any period for analysis if required.

Another special feature is that if any abnormality happens in the system, SMS in the form of alert comes to concerned supervisor so that prompt corrective action may be taken immediately to rectify the problem.
—iGovernment Bureau