To enhance the safety measures within trains, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT) is developing a tamper-proof signalling system based on blockchain technology for the Indian railways. The new system will complement the existing Data Logger, which is considered the Black Box of rolling stock.
As per the media reports, Ministry of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw has requested the premiere Institute for this technological development. The researchers in the Engineering stream are working on a robust system that will facilitate a mechanism to ensure the safety, communication and control of train operations.
Prof. Aurobindo Routray of the Institute said, "The blockchain system would provide several benefits, such as increased accountability, safety and efficiency. Overall, the new blockchain system would be a significant improvement over the current system." “All events occurring in the train and control room would be recorded securely and no one can tamper with it or bypass it,” added the professor.
Professor Routray said that he is writing the programme along with some colleagues after the Railways minister sought a proposal on a foolproof signalling system based on blockchain.
According to him Blockchain technology is being utilised in many developing countries, and the technology will be beneficial to Indian Railways as well for the safety of train operations.
Professor Routray said that the focus was to make the live movement of trains available for Station Masters, Section Controllers, Signal Engineers and all other logs. The professor also said the new system will enhance data integrity, transparency and security. It would enable secure data sharing among stakeholders and automate processes with smart contracts and create tamper-evident audit trails.
The system will complement the Data Logger System, which was limited by its centralised storage facilities, lack of tampered evident data and limited access control. The new blockchain system would address all these limitations by storing data in a distributed ledger by using cryptography to ensure data integrity and make data accessible to the involved stakeholders.
This will make the new system even more transparent, secure and efficient than the existing system. In addition, Professor Routray said that the blockchain system would provide several benefits, such as increased accountability, safety and efficiency.
