An earthquake warning system for the Delhi metro has been developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratory.
The system will be put in place so that metro services can be halted if needed. The test system helped stop the Metro services after tremors were felt in the national capital last month.
The Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) was asked to create a system for detecting quakes that measure above 3 on the Richter Scale.
Developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO), Chandigarh, the system has the ability to sense tremors, record them and generate an SMS to the concerned action points, in real time.
The information has been integrated with the system and was also passed on to designated officers. Within three seconds orders can be given to stop the Metro.RK Sinha, Director, CSIO
He also added that the system can be used at nuclear reactor sites, where activities can be stopped in case of an earthquake.
The apparatus, however, cannot be called an ‘early warning system’, for it is set in action only after the tremors.
The CSIO has installed five sensors across different metro locations – Mundka, Botanical Garden, Huda City Centre, Metro Bhawan and Faridabad – comprising seismic warning systems with LAN connectivity with the DMRC network for generation of alarm signal on major earthquake.
It is in operation since August 2015, but was validated last month.
The sensor also has a highly sensitive pendulum. So, anytime there is a vibration inside the earth, it starts oscillating. They send signals about any seismic activity and communicate it to the central control located at Operation Control Centre (DMRC-OCC) regarding potential earthquake incidence.
The central control will take a final decision on further course of action based on the response of all the individual nodes.
In countries like Japan, the Metro services stop automatically when it receives such signals.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)