Title - Chandigarh Metro: Info, safety system on track

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh Metro Rail system will have state-of-the-art information and telecommunication system for the benefit of commuters at the stations and inside the trains. A total of 30 stations will be built in the first phase of the project. Here are the key features of the system:

Passenger announcement system The system will be used for transmitting messages from the operational control center and the local stations. Announcements from stations will override those from the control center in case of an emergency.

Train destination indicator system LED/LCD based boards with adequate visibility at convenient locations in all stations to provide bilingual visual indication of status of running trains.

Centralised control system It will provide accurate time through a synchronization system of clocks driven from a master clock fed from a global positioning system placed at the operation control room. The system will ensure identical display of time at all locations.

Passenger information display system The displays will be located at convenient locations at all the stations to provide bilingual visual indications of the status of the running trains and will typically indicate information such as destination, arrival/departure time and also special messages in emergencies. The boards will be provided at all platforms and concourse of all stations. The system will be integrated with passenger announcement system.

CCTV system It will provide video surveillance and recording for each system. The system will have a mix of fixed cameras and pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras. These will be located at areas where monitoring for security, safety and crowd control is necessary.

Transmission media Optical fibre system as the main source of telecommunication system.

Train radio system Digital train radio (TETRA) communication between motorman of moving cars, stations, maintenance personnel and central control.

Train protection system Using, automatic train protection system, movement of all trains to be logged on to central computer.