South Eastern Railways would replace the manual Route Relay Interlocking mechanism in Kharagpur with a digitized system, work for which has begun on Sunday.
SER's spokesperson said rail services between Kharagpur and Howrah will be affected from Sunday onwards till the work ends on November 19.
A senior SER official said the digitized RRI would be fail-safe with both panel and Visual Display Units. The work would also involve removing three lever-operated cabins from Kharagpur yard. "After installation, Kharagpur yard will have the largest electronic interlocking system," the official said.
Two more platforms will be added to the Kharagpur station that already has six platforms.
Kharagpur is a key link between Kolkata to the south and western states, besides which it also connects Odisha and Jharkhand with the Northeast. The digitization work has been taken up at a cost of Rs 35 crore.
"In Railway parlance, setting up of points and routes are an intricate part of train movement," SER's Chief Passenger Transportation Manager Soumitra Majumdar told Deccan Hherald.
"In Kharagpur, this was earlier done by pulling the levers from cabins, changing the tracks and fixing them for different routes. This is linked to the signaling system which the loco pilots follow."
The electronic panel will help railway traffic planners to see the whole yard and fix the platforms for the inbound and outbound trains. The digital RRI will also increase the number of routes via Khoragpur from 423 to 800. "Traffic planners will have a wider choice to receive and dispatch trains," Majumdar said.
The third line from Kharagpur to Howrah will also be active from November 19, easing congestion and increasing speed.
The system will also considerably improve SER's accident report mechanism by directly sending relief and medical trains, besides sending and receiving cranes.
The SER spokesperson said only two platforms will be operational in Kharagpur for oncoming and outgoing trains. On November 19, all train movement in Kharagpur will be stopped from 8 am to 8 pm to do final installation and testing of the system.
"Several mail and express trains including the Howrah-Yeshvantpur Duronto Express, Howrah-Secunderabad Falaknuma Express, Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, Howrah-Mumbai CSTM Express, Howrah-Ahmedabad Express and Howrah-Puri Shatabdi Express will remain cancelled on November 19," he said.
New Delhi-bound trains from Odisha, including the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express will be diverted via Hijli and Nimpura. Several EMU locals, MEMU and passenger trains will remain partially or fully cancelled between November 17 and 19.
