Indian Railways sanctions ₹432 crore electronic interlocking project on Eastern Railway’s HDN/HUN routes
Indian Railways has sanctioned a ₹432 crore Electronic Interlocking upgrade on Asansol Division’s High Density Network and Highly Utilised Network routes to replace relay-based signalling at 27 stations/cabins, including one intermediate block signalling location.
- Electronic Interlocking is a computer-based signalling system used to prevent conflicting train movements and improve railway operational reliability.
- The Asansol Division is part of a dense and heavily used railway corridor where Indian Railways is prioritising signalling upgrades.
What happened
Indian Railways has sanctioned a ₹432 crore project to replace relay-based interlocking with Electronic Interlocking on 27 stations/cabins, including 1 intermediate block signalling (IBS) location, on the High Density Network (HDN) and Highly Utilised Network (HUN) routes of the Asansol Division of Eastern Railway.
The sanctioned work covers the replacement of 28 relay-based interlocking installations with computer-based signalling systems. Indian Railways says the upgrade is meant to improve safety, reliability, operational efficiency, fault diagnosis, maintenance, and train handling on one of the busiest sections of the network.
UPSC can frame Electronic Interlocking as a railway safety and capacity question: replacement of ageing relay systems, role of digital signalling in reducing faults, and coordination with other modern systems such as Kavach, Automatic Block Signalling, and Centralised Traffic Control on busy routes.
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