Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Indian Railways has sanctioned a project worth Rs 405 crore to modernise the signalling infrastructure on the Eastern Railway network, involving the replacement of conventional relay-based interlocking systems with advanced Electronic Interlocking at 32 stations, in a move that the Railway Ministry says will significantly strengthen safety and operational efficiency on some of the country’s busiest rail corridors.
The project covers 25 Panel Interlocking and Route Relay Interlocking stations as well as 7 Intermediate Block Signalling locations spread across High Density Network and Highly Utilised Network routes. These are among the most critical stretches of the Indian railway system, carrying enormous volumes of passenger and freight traffic every day.
Electronic Interlocking technology replaces older, failure-prone mechanical and relay-based systems with digital, computerised controls that dramatically reduce the likelihood of equipment failures and human errors. The shift to electronic systems also enables faster processing of train movement permissions, improving punctuality and overall throughput on busy routes.
The Ministry of Railways noted that the upgrade aligns with Indian Railways’ broader long-term vision of building a modern signalling ecosystem capable of supporting next-generation technologies, including Kavach, the indigenous automatic train protection system that has been at the centre of the government’s push to eliminate train collisions. The project will also lay the groundwork for the eventual deployment of Automatic Block Signalling and Centralised Traffic Control on these high-density corridors.
The sanctioning of this project comes in the backdrop of sustained national focus on railway safety following a series of accidents over the past few years that brought signalling and infrastructure gaps into sharp public attention. The government has responded with a significant acceleration in capital expenditure on railway safety, with Indian Railways receiving record allocations in recent Union Budgets.
Eastern Railway, headquartered in Kolkata, is one of the oldest and most heavily utilised railway zones in the country, serving West Bengal, Jharkhand, and parts of Bihar. The modernisation of signalling on this network will benefit millions of daily commuters and freight operators.
The Railway Ministry, headed by Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, has been pushing aggressively for the digitisation and modernisation of railway operations.
