The Department of Railways has requested the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) to implement an SMS alert system for residents living in areas where wild elephants frequently cross railway tracks.
The formal request made by General Manager of Railways – Dhammika Jayasundara on July 07, aims to reduce collisions between trains and wild elephants – incidents that pose serious safety risks to the wild elephant population and passengers as well as cause extensive damage to railway property.
It further notes that residents in such areas have been encouraged to send information about elephant movements to the Railway Department’s 1971 hotline.
However, Mr. Jayasundara has noted that this measure alone is not sufficient and stressed the timely need for a system that immediately sends out SMS alerts to all mobile phone users in affected zones.
As the initial phase, the Railways Department has requested the TRCSL to send an SMS to all mobile subscribers islandwide, informing them that they can report elephant crossings by texting the 1971 hotline.
The proposal also calls for extra SMS reminders to mobile users in the elephant crossing areas. These residents are to be reminded weekly for a month, and then monthly for a year.
The proposal additionally calls to send an awareness SMS message to all mobile users who enter these zones.
