New Delhi: Most advanced Electronic Interlocking System has been installed on the Grand Chord route. The measure is expected to help Indian Railways speed up trains and to achieve its future objective of reducing the travel time between Delhi and Howrah to about 12 hours from the existing 17-19 hours.
Grand Chord is part of the Howrah-Gaya-Delhi line and Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line. It acts as a link between Sitarampur, (West Bengal) and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Uttar Pradesh, and covers a stretch of 450 kms falling in North Central Railway (NCR) Zone of Indian Railways, which maintains and operates 53% portion of this New Delhi-Howrah route. This achievement becomes possible by replacement of the 65-year old outdated Mechanical Signaling System with the most advanced and safer Electronic Interlocking System at Tundla station in Uttar Pradesh now.
Around 500 persons worked day and night without break from 2nd September 2019 to 20th October 2019 to execute this complex and challenging work in minimum possible time and with minimum inconvenience to the public using innovative and out of the box methodologies and meticulous planning.
Tundla Jn. is an important station on this super-saturated route operating 160% of its designed capacity. Tundla also connects mainline with Agra Cantt. Jn. This important Electronic Interlocking work at Tundla Jn. was having 613 route combinations which is only second to Kharagpur in South Eastern Railway with 800 routes.