4.1. Facilities provided by GIS approach:
The proposed GIS spatial database approach can be utilised in catering the needs of the Rescue crew in planning, decision-making and implementing of rail disaster management activities.

• Locating the site of accident becomes very simpler as inputting the approximate Latitude and Longitude can do it, or the site can be searched by the names of the locations nearby.
• The accessibility can be analysed more realistically with aid of the road net work maps in the vicinity of site of accident.
• Finding out the required resources becomes simpler, speedy and accurate as the data base contains the information about almost all the resources available like Police, Administration, revenue authorities, medical facilities with details about the number of beds, specialisation etc, fire fighting facilities with available infrastructure, and other resources like voluntary organisations and special police forces etc.





• Finding out optimum routes between different resource locations to accident site.
• The system also helpful in topographic and demographic analysis to improve the effectiveness in the planning and implementation activities.
• The system also provides buffer analysis to facilitate effective planning and utilisation of the available resources in the required buffer zones of the affected areas.
• The system also provides very easy means to add and update the records of the database so that the regular updating can be simpler task.

The system provides continuous monitoring on rescue activities and facilitates dynamic planning of strategies to meet the changing requirements of the rescue activities with respect to the impedance of the implementation of planned strategies.

The scope for the enhancement in the system is much more as the advancement of the web technology. The databases can be made available for all the concerned authorities through Internet and intranet facilities. This connectivity definitely enhances the mutual cooperation of the authorities to accomplish the task with more efficiency.

5. Conclusion:
GIS is essential to effective preparedness, communication, and training tool for disaster management. The integrated GIS & GPS technology offers enhancement for the existing signaling system to avoid the human error in making the decision for traffic signaling and also provides continuous monitoring of the train movement on the tracks to ensure much more safety in the rail network operations. With the effective utilisation of the advantages provided by the GIS spatial database the efficiency in the rescue planning and implementing activities can be improved.

6. Acknowledgements:
The authors are like to take this opportunity to express their profound gratitude to Mr. Rakesh Malhotra, Managing Director, Sar Softech Pvt. Ltd. for giving this opportunity to present this paper. We are also extremely indebted to Mr. Swarup Chakraborti Head GIS for his kind cooperation and suggestions. Last but not least we are very much thankful to the Map India for accepting this paper.

Bibliography:

1. Anselin, L. (1990). What is special about spatial data? Alternative perspective on spatial data analysis. In Spatial Statistics: Past, Present and Future, edited by D.A.Griffith, Monograph #12, Institute of Mathematical Geography.
2. Air craft Disaster Mangement using Remote sensing and GIS technics by Prof. I.V. Murali Krishna Head of the department, A. RamGopal Raju and D.B. Suresh Babu CSIT, JNTU, Hyderabad.
3. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems- Lillisand and Keefer.
4. GIS Development magazines of August 2003 and October 2003.
5. Upton, G.J., and Fingleton, B. (1985). Spatial data analysis by example, volume 1: Point pattern and quantitative data. Wiley, Toronto Singapore, Brisbane, New York, Chichester.

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