HOT-PASS: hot work made safe, digital and accountable.
We built HOT-PASS for a mechanical workshop of Indian Railways. It took a process that ran on paper slips and whiteboards and turned it into a governed digital system, from the moment a coach enters the workshop to the moment it leaves, with fire safety and accountability built into every step.
- Industry
- Railways, rolling stock MRO
- Deployment
- Mechanical workshop, Indian Railways
- Access model
- Role based access, 8 roles
- Platform
- Web and installable Android
What a paper hot work operation really costs.
Hot work ran on paper
Welding, cutting and grinding a coach is some of the most dangerous work in the shop. Yet the permit that allowed it was a paper slip. Nothing forced the safety checks, and there was no dependable record of who signed off on what.
Coaches lived on a whiteboard
At any moment dozens of coaches are moving between shops, lines and pit positions. When that lives on a whiteboard and a spreadsheet, bays get double booked and nobody quite shares the same picture of where a coach actually is.
Accountability got blurry
Who asked for the work, who approved it, who did it, and who was holding the coach at the time. That sat with different people and different bits of paper, and it was almost impossible to piece back together afterwards.
Nothing to show an inspector
A safety review needs proof that the right controls were followed. Rebuilding a permit's story out of paper took real time, and it was rarely complete.
One governed system, from coach entry to hot work to exit.
HOT-PASS turns a paper process into a controlled digital one. Every coach is tracked to a real position, and every hot work authorization is routed, safety checked and recorded.
One clear permit flow
A single flow carries a permit from request to routed approval, site permission, safety checklist, start and finish.
Controls you cannot skip
The five point checklist and the site permission are enforced by the system, so they never rest on memory.
The right approver, every time
Requests route to the responsible in-charge, and no one can sign off their own.
Live coach positioning
Shop, line and position tracking, with the database keeping each bay unique.
Everything is recorded
A tamper proof log and an incident register keep the whole history within reach.
Real time to every role
WebSocket queues and push notifications keep requesters, approvers and executors in step.
How a coach moves through the system.
Nine controlled steps. Each one is gated, routed and recorded.
- 01
Coach entry
A coach arrives for overhaul and gets logged with its number, type, zone and base.
- 02
Verification
The verification team inspects it and marks it verified. Nothing can be placed or worked on until that happens.
- 03
Lift and place
The verified coach is moved into a specific shop, line and position, and an in-charge is assigned to that spot.
- 04
Assign to a team
An in-charge or admin hands the coach to the SSE or JE who will actually do the work.
- 05
Raise the permit
The engineer requests a permit for the exact work type, welding or cutting or grinding, with a date and a time slot.
- 06
Route and approve
The request goes straight to the in-charge responsible for that work type. The person who raised it can never approve it, so a second pair of eyes always signs off and decides who executes it.
- 07
Site permission
The executor asks for site permission from the in-charge who physically holds the coach's shop. It is a second check, tied to who really has the coach.
- 08
Start with the checklist
Work will not start until a five point fire safety checklist is confirmed: extinguisher, water, clear area, fire watch and ventilation.
- 09
Finish and exit
Completed work is logged with its duration and the staff involved. When the coach leaves, its full history stays in the database.
The capabilities that matter most.
Coach lifecycle
- Entry logged against zone, base and coach type master data
- A verification step that gates everything downstream
- Placement into shop, line and position with live occupancy
- Bay uniqueness enforced in the database, so nothing gets double booked
- An exit register that keeps the full movement history
Hot work permits and fire safety
- A digital permit for each coach, work type and time slot
- Requests routed automatically to the right in-charge
- A mandatory five point safety checklist before work begins
- Site permission tied to whoever physically holds the coach
- Duplicate and clashing time slots caught before they happen
Governance and audit
- The person who raises a permit can never approve their own
- A tamper proof log of every action and decision
- Incidents recorded against the exact coach being worked on
- Approval and site permission decisions kept for the record
- Built to a CERT-In aligned, ISO 27001 ready posture
Access and master data
- Eight roles from super admin down to JE, each with its own permissions
- In-charges who can cover more than one shop
- Configurable zones, divisions, bases, shops, lines and sections
- A work type catalog where each type owns a responsible in-charge
- Login that works on the shop floor, not just at a desk
Nine modules, one operating picture.
Dashboard
The control room
Live counts of coaches in the workshop, verified, waiting on verification and lifted, next to the state of every hot work request, with quick actions per role.
Coach Operations
The coach's journey
Coach management, view, pending verification, assignment, lift and place, and the exit register. Everything from arrival to departure.
Hot Work / Permissions
The permit engine
Request, route, approve, assign, site permit, start and finish hot work, with each role getting its own queue.
Incidents
Safety events
Log and follow incidents against the exact coach and location, feeding the compliance reports.
Coach Database
One source of truth
The full inventory and movement history across every workshop visit, searchable and ready for audit.
Reports
For the officers
Permit trends, incident breakdowns, staff performance, coach status by shop and monthly summaries.
Audit Log
Accountability
Every create, approve, reject and move, captured with who did it, on what, and when.
Master & Users
The setup
Zones, divisions, bases, shops, lines, sections, coach types and work types, plus users, roles and permissions.
What the workshop gains.
Real outcomes tied to what the platform does. The exact numbers are best measured on each deployment.
No more paper permits
Every authorization is digital, routed and time stamped. No slips, no lost registers.
Safety is built in
Hot work cannot begin without the checklist and site permission. The controls are part of the system, not a habit someone has to remember.
You can see who did what
Requester, approver, executor and coach holder are all on record, and nobody approves their own request.
The coach picture stays right
One live view of where every coach sits, with bay clashes ruled out.
Requests reach the right person
Approvals go to the correct in-charge on their own, so there is no chasing or guessing.
Ready for any inspection
The complete history is there whenever a safety or compliance review needs it.
Officers see it live
Dashboards and reports give management the current picture without ringing the shop floor.
Decisions move faster
Live queues and notifications take the place of walking paper around and calling for status.
Enterprise grade under the hood.
Backend
NestJS and Prisma on PostgreSQL. Clean modules, validated inputs, REST APIs and a WebSocket channel that pushes live permit updates.
Frontend
React, Vite and TypeScript with Tailwind. A quick, component based app with live queues and instant feedback.
Mobile
Wrapped with Capacitor into an installable Android app with push notifications, made for use out on the floor.
Security
JWT sign in, a permission check on every action, no self approval, uniqueness and validation rules in the database itself, and a full audit log. CERT-In aligned and ISO 27001 ready.
Real time and notifications
WebSocket queues and Firebase push keep every role current without hitting refresh.
Configurable and scalable
Multi zone, multi shop master data and role scoping mean the same platform fits the next workshop through configuration, not rewrites.
Where this platform fits.
Any operation that positions physical assets and runs a permit to work safety regime.
An architecture built to grow.
AI and prediction
Scoring incident risk, balancing workload and spotting odd patterns in permits.
Deeper analytics
Cycle time, shop utilization and safety trends built on the data already being captured.
Offline first mobile
A field app that keeps working in low signal pit areas and syncs when it can.
Cloud and scale
A containerized deployment that scales out across more workshops and zones.
IoT and sensors
Gas and temperature sensing, RFID coach tracking and device based sign off.
Enterprise integration
ERP, CMMS, biometric attendance and messaging, all through the API that is already there.
Safety, accountability, and a system that fits the floor.
Have a permit to work or asset tracking problem?
Talk to the team that built HOT-PASS for a live railway workshop. No slide deck, just answers.