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Red Sea Project to tag thousands of workers and vehicles for safety and efficiency

The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), the body behind Saudi Arabia’s mega Red Sea resort scheme, will tag up to 36,000 construction workers and 3,000 vehicles over the 3,500-sq-km site to manage security, safety, access control and movement efficiency after signing a contract with Internet of Things service provider, MachinesTalk.

Phase One of the Red Sea Project is due to complete in 2023 with 16 hotels and 3,000 rooms on five islands and two inland resorts, as well as commercial, retail and leisure facilities and other infrastructure.

By 2030, it will comprise 50 hotels and around 1,300 residential properties on 22 islands and six inland sites, encompassing a total area of some 28,000 sq km.

"We asked ourselves how we could enhance security on our site and enable an efficient construction process at the same time, while considering upwards of 36,000 workers across 3,500 km2," said Ian Williamson, TRSDC’s Chief Projects Delivery Officer.

"How could we ensure worker safety in case of health emergencies or prevent workers getting lost in remote locations in the desert or on islands? How could we control access and track the 3,000 vehicles of multiple contractors across the construction site, delivering materials, tools and transporting employees?"

MachinesTalk’s smart badges and tags allow TRSDC to identify workers and vehicles and secure the construction area against unauthorised individual and vehicle access.

Individual access rights will be granted based on role, responsibility, category and group of workers. In addition, the possibility of identifying vehicles remotely, geo-fencing perimeters and setting up alerts based on worker and vehicle access breaches will further enhance security.

A panic button will enable workers in distress to send an SOS signal back to TRSDC’s security and emergency response centre, allowing response teams to be sent directly to the location of the worker without losing potentially life-saving time.

All tagged vehicles will have an estimated time of arrival (ETA) to ensure that there are no delays between required tasks. Alerts will be triggered for idle workers or vehicles to enable improved worker supervision.

The technology MachinesTalk provides will apply to all TRSDC’s contractors, who will be able to register their workers and vehicles and receive accreditation for them as required.

Image: Alerts will be triggered for idle workers or vehicles to enable improved worker supervision (Courtesy of TRSDC)

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