Railway networks run on tens of thousands of assets — components, tools, fixtures and infrastructure parts — spread across yards, depots and worksites. Identium has supplied RFID hardware and identification systems to support asset and infrastructure tracking work for Indian Railways, one of the largest railway operators in the world.
The challenge
Railway assets move constantly between stores, maintenance bays and the field. Tracking them on paper or with line-of-sight barcodes is slow and error-prone: components get misplaced, audits take days, and there is no reliable, time-stamped record of where a part has been or which stage of inspection it has passed. Many assets are metal, exposed to weather, vibration and rough handling — conditions that defeat ordinary labels.
What Identium deployed
Identium’s approach centred on giving each asset a unique, scannable RFID identity that survives the rail environment:
- Rugged, on-metal UHF tags — see our RFID metal tags and rugged RFID tags, built to stay readable on metal surfaces exposed to weather and vibration.
- Handheld readers for field verification, audits and exception handling — our portable UHF readers let crews scan components without line of sight.
- Fixed and gate readers at stores and movement points to log assets automatically as they enter and leave — see fixed UHF readers.
All hardware operates on India’s 865-867 MHz UHF band, and Identium is BIS certified and WPC approved. The deployment draws on the same building blocks as our RFID asset tracking and RFID infrastructures solutions, with active RFID reader tracking available where real-time location of high-value plant is needed.
The outcome
By replacing manual, line-of-sight checks with automatic RFID reads, the deployment supports faster physical audits, fewer misplaced assets and a time-stamped trail of asset movement that inspecting staff can rely on. Crews spend less time searching for components and more time on the work itself, and stores teams gain a clearer picture of what is on hand. These are qualitative gains reported in the context of the work; we do not publish hard percentage figures.
Planning RFID for a railway, transit or large infrastructure operation? Request a quote and our team will map read points and recommend tags tested on your actual assets.
Deployment details shared with client permission; specifics available on request.
Interested in trackside RFID? Read how Kavach uses RFID tags for railway safety.