Minimizing Cable

Theft in Railways
Networks
Leveraging IoT to build a comprehensive non-
invasive copper cable theft detection system
 Transportation | Whitepaper

Contents

Abstract 1

Executive Summary 1

Global Issue and Law Enforcement 2

Efforts

Using IoT to Address the Problem 3

Proof of Concept 4

The Cyient Thought Board 6

References 7

About the Author 7

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 Transportation | Whitepaper

Abstract

With high global copper prices, cable theft incidents continue to plague the railways
and result in losses amounting to millions of dollars per year. These thefts are
particularly high in sparsely populated areas that cannot be easily monitored. IoT
technology enables real-time monitoring of assets and can also be used to address
the issue of copper theft. By partnering with an experienced service provider who has
industry expertise and a deep understanding of emerging technologies, rail companies
can deploy a modular solution that non-invasively detects the location of cable cuts
instantaneously to alert authorities and prevent further damage or downtime.

Executive Summary

While there is a wide variety of
cables available today, single to
multi-core copper conductors
are used for railway signaling
and telecommunications
purposes. This is because
they are robust enough to
withstand extreme physical
conditions and are rated fairly
to carry the required voltages,
current, and frequencies.
However, the theft of metal for
its resale value increases when
worldwide prices for scrap
metal rise and the railways,
world over, are a favorite
target for the copper in their
cables.
Experts suggest that cable
theft is one of the biggest
challenges faced by the railway
industry after terrorism. Cable
theft costs Britain’s economy
an estimated £770 million
a year. A rough estimate by
Indian Railways reveals that,
every month in the last three
years, train timings have been
affected at least 16 times
owing to theft of cables along
the tracks1. Hence, there is a
dire need to detect, alert, and
reduce theft-related delays
and costs.
At Cyient, we envisaged a
solution using the Internet of
Things (IoT) and translated our
thinking to create a functional
prototype that could non-
invasively detect the location
and time of a cable cut,
promptly alert the authorities,
provide an approximate length
of the cable cut, and show
the live status of junction
boxes on a Web application.
A non-invasive solution is
also expected to eliminate all
certification-related issues.

Cyient envisages an IoT-based solution to

non-invasively detect location, length, and
time of a cable cut, alert authorities and
show the live status of junction boxes on a
Web application.
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 Transportation | Whitepaper
Copper conductors, being robust enough to
withstand physical conditions, are extensively
used for railway signaling purposes. The theft
of copper cables installed along the railway
tracks has become a major cause of concern for
the railways all over the world, as this leads to
track circuit failure—a situation in which train
services are disrupted for hours. The adversely
affected train timings cause a huge revenue loss
to railways.
Copper cable theft is a growing crime that
increases when worldwide prices for scrap metal
rise (as seen below in Figure 1). This is driven
dramatically due to the rapid industrialization
in India and China. The metals most commonly
stolen are non-ferrous metals such as copper,
Global Issue and Law Enforcement Efforts
We carried out a study on the types of railway
equipment stolen and categorized them into
buckets that included loss of life, accident,
crash, and loss due to theft. Along with copper
cables, other equipment stolen in large
quantities are fish plates, pandrol clips, clamps,
rail bars, and batteries. But cable theft is a
bigger and recurring problem for global railway
systems and is also a growing menace across
other industries such as telecom and utilities.
Cable theft causes power outages that result
in inconvenience to customers and entails high
cost of repair and replacement for businesses.
02
aluminum, brass, and bronze. However, even
cast iron and steel are seeing higher rates of
theft due to increased scrap metal prices.
Copper cables alongside the railway tracks are
an easy target as they are generally far from
homes and people, and there are thousands of
miles of tracks to choose from, which makes
them virtually impossible to protect.
Copper may be stolen from electric poles,
power lines, substations, and company storage
yards. Before resale, the plastic sheathing and
outer skin are usually removed from the cable,
because raw copper is more valuable, and sold
to scrap dealers.
Considering the significant increase in copper
cable theft, law enforcement efforts have been
initiated by several countries such as Australia,
Austria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Russia,
South Africa, the UK, and the US. In India, cases
of cable thefts are lodged under Section 174-C
of the Indian Railways Act, 1989.
Law enforcement agencies in some of these
countries have tied up with scrap dealers
and local citizens to prevent copper theft by
increasing their awareness. And yet, despite
these efforts, cable theft continues to be an
issue and a pain point to be addressed.
 Transportation | Whitepaper

Using IoT to Address the Problem

IoT is one of the top disruptive technologies
transforming life, business, and the global
economy. Often referred to as the “Internet
of Everything,” IoT is the network of physical
objects or “things” embedded with electronics,
software, sensors, and connectivity to enable
objects to exchange data over the Internet.
At Cyient, we leverage our domain experience,
knowledge of hardware, firmware and software,
and the right vendor partnerships to create a
full-fledged IoT solution.
Non-Invasiveness
For the solution to be effective, it needs to
be competely “non-invasive” to avoid any
certification issues and ensure a quicker
time-to-market. Our solution is based on the
principle of non-invasive detection, and uses
Central Server
the requisite hardware and communication
technologies for detecting the cut, alerting,
and providing an approximate length of the
cut. Considering the distance between the
junction boxes, LoRaWAN would be the best fit,
but as a proof of concept and to showcase the
workability of the solution, our engineers used a
different technology for building the functional
prototype.
Overall Architecture
With the junction boxes placed at a distance
of 2.5 kilometers on either side of the station
and separated from other junction boxes by
500 meters, we planned to place sensors for
every 250 meters both below and above the
ground. The overall architecture of our solution
is depicted in Figure 1.

Predict potential theft areas / time / location

Level

Analytics Central
Processing AWS
Unit station cloud
Alert pre and post
failure stations
for scheduling trains
Station
Level

Railway Station 1 Railway Station 2 Railway Station 3

XBee Coordinator + XBee Coordinator + XBee Coordinator +
Raspberry Pi 3 Raspberry Pi 3 Raspberry Pi 3

Cable Junction Cable Junction Cable Junction

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3
XBee Node 1 XBee Node 2 XBee Node 3
Level
Site

Cable XBee XBee

theft area Node 1.1 Node 2.1

Staff alerted for quick action

If staff is close by, can catch suspect on first cut alert

Fig. 1 | Overall architecture

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 Transportation | Whitepaper
Proof of Concept
Based on our discussions with
SMEs from Indian Railways,
we have considered the Indian
scenario for building our proof
of concept as shown in Figure
2 below.
With sensors placed around
the junction boxes, we were
able to monitor the live status
of the cables. The moment
there was a cut at any point
of the cable, two levels of
verification were carried
out and an alert in the form
of an SMS and/or email was
triggered. The notification
alert would mention the
location and the time of cut
along with an approximate
length of the cable cut.
500m
Fig. 2 | Preliminary device hookup
Tests on our concept have yielded
positive results and efforts are
currently on to make the solution
more robust.
04
Cyient developed a test bed
setup of the IoT solution
for non-invasive cable theft
detection as shown in Figure 3.
The developed Web
application can be accessed
through the Internet with
the right credentials. All the
incidents of cable theft are
captured instantly and pushed
onto the cloud, thereby giving
a snapshot of the cable thefts
at country/state/district/zonal
levels at any point of time.
Tests on our concept have
yielded positive results and
efforts are currently on to
make the solution more robust
by addressing device
Main station
500m
sensitivity and ruggedness,
and testing it in real
conditions.
Currently, Cyient is extending
its offering by developing
a generic and modular IoT
solution that can be applied
for legacy rolling stock and
railway infrastructure. This
solution will consist of a set
of intelligent devices with
multiple sensor inputs as well
as communication units that
transmit collected data to the
cloud, where it will be used for
dashboards presenting real-
time status of assets and for
big data analytics.
 Transportation | Whitepaper

Fig. 3 | Test bed setup of proof of concept

05
 The Cyient Thought Board
Transportation | Whitepaper

Minimizing Cable Theft in Railways Networks

How do copper component thefts impact the railway industry?

Instant Unplanned Compromised Reinstallation Additional

monetary losses downtime passenger safety costs labor expenses

What components of railway infrastructure commonly get stolen for copper extracts?

Pipes Alternating Cables Tubes Coils Rooftops

current and wires
systems

What benefits of IoT make it efficient in addressing copper cable theft?

High-speed Endpoint Real-time Command Non- Cloud

messaging management analysis and control invasiveness integration

What are the features of the PoC Cyient developed for Indian Railways to deal with this
issue?

Web access to the Incidents captured

monitoring application in real-time

Cloud-access allows anytime, anywhere

access of information

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 Transportation | Whitepaper

References About the Author

1
Source: http://www.macrotrends.net/1476/
copper-prices-historical-chart-data
2
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/
moslive/article-2101462/Copper-cable-theft-
costing-Britain-fortune.html
3
Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/
mumbai/cable-thefts-lead-to-disruption-of-
train-services/
4
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_
theft
Narendra Kumar Sivalenka, PMP® is a
senior manager at Cyient and is part of the
Opportunity Management team in corporate
strategy. With a strong affinity for new
technologies and having more than 18 years of
cross functional experience in the aerospace
and marine domains, he is responsible
for recognizing and driving new strategic
opportunities by generating and developing
ideas that transform into potential solutions.
He is an MBA and holds a bachelor’s degree in
mechanical engineering.

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 Transportation | Whitepaper

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