What is RFID Tag? Over 3.5 lakh coaches to be equipped with smart tags

Indian Railways has announced that it will equip all coaches and engines with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. About 3, 50,000 passenger coaches and freight coaches of the railways will be equipped with RFID tags for their smart monitoring.

Indian Railways said in its statement that all coaches and engines will be equipped with RFID tags by the year 2021. Indian Railway is taking this measure to improve the safety and reliability of the rolling stock. According to an estimate, this project will cost Rs. 112.96 crore.

What is RFID?

Radio-frequency identification or RFID tag uses electromagnetic fields to track and identify various objects. Each RFID tag consists of a small radio transponder, a transmitter, and a radio receiver. An RFID reader decodes the information sent by the RFID tag.

An RFID tag can be affixed to any object to track and monitor assents, people and inventory. It is generally affixed to the computer equipment, cars, passenger trains or buses, books, etc. It is faster than barcodes as RFID can be read several times while barcodes can be read one at a time.

Key Highlights

• The government has already equipped about 22000 freight trains and 1200 passenger coaches with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.
• About 3500 static RFID readers will send data to a central control center using the LLRP standard of GS1 barcode.
• The data can be read even if the train speed is 182 km. Indian Railway believes that it will help them to monitor wagons and surveillance on every passenger compartment.
• The RFID Tag will provide not only the coach number but also all the information including its construction history.
• This will reduce network problems, eliminate connectivity problems and the government will be able to exploit resources with more efficiency.