In a bid to ensure safe travel for passengers, Indian Railways plans to complete implementation of 25 Online Monitoring of Rolling Stock systems (OMRS) at 20 locations in Phase I by the end of 2020.

A Ministry statement said on Wednesday that Railways is moving towards adoption of automation and instrumentation in its maintenance practices to detect defects/deficiencies in its rolling assets before any catastrophic failure.

"This will lead to a paradigm shift in maintenance practices of rolling stock from time-based maintenance to condition-based predictive maintenance, so as to enhance reliability and availability along with improved safety of rolling stock during run," it said.

OMRS is a wayside inspection system consisting of acoustic bearing detector (ABD) or rail bearing acoustic monitor (RailBAM) and wheel impact load detector (WILD) to detect the faults in bearings and wheels of rolling assets. 

The automated system helps detect defective wheels and bearings before they fail, thus leading to efficient utilization of coaches, wagons and locomotives. 

"Defect report generation and alert communications takes place in real time for necessary corrective action."

Current inspection of rolling stock is largely based on manual inspection, which is either trackside rolling-in examination or pit examination in stationary or slow-moving condition. The visual inspections are done by trained manpower either in a pit or trackside location but this relies on individual judgement. 

Installation of OMRS at selected locations is currently in progress on different rail sections identified by a multi-disciplinary committee of the Railway Board. 

The first OMRS was installed at Panipat on the Ambala-Delhi section of Northern Railway in November 2017. 

A central control room -- National Command Centre (NCC) -- for monitoring all OMRS sites was set up in Delhi in March 2018.

Till date, six OMRS have been installed and 10 other systems are expected to be installed in fiscal 2019-20 fiscal. The remaining OMRS are likely to be installed by the end of 2020, the Ministry added.