Till last September, there was an 80 per cent chance that a train could ram into another on the tracks between Liluah and Howrah stations. So every day, passengers on the section — over six lakh daily — had a close brush with death without knowing it.

The installation last September of the route-relay interlocking system — a highly-sophisticated signalling device — has reduced the collision chances by 80 per cent, claim railway officials.

“The new computerised signalling system has been designed to maintain a gap of 120 metres between trains on the same track,” explained S.R. Thakur, Eastern Railway chief operations manager, on Wednesday.

The new device will ensure greater passenger safety and minimise accident risks. The system will also enable operators to clear the spot near the Liluah car-shed, where local and long-distance trains gather on the six sets of tracks before being guided to their respective platforms.

“Under the old system, the safety aspect was not as foolproof. Operators would turn the signal green immediately after a train, halted at a red signal ahead, started moving. But now, no matter what the operator does, the signal will not turn green for a train until the tail of the train ahead has moved 120 metres away from it,” said a senior official.

For the device to be effective, the distance between two signal posts has to be increased. So, it will enable the railways to add three more coaches to the existing nine-coach EMU trains. “As the gadget does not allow two trains on the same tracks to come nearer than 120 metres, we now have a greater distance between trains. This will help us add an additional passenger capacity of 1,000,” said Thakur.

Eastern Railway claimed the new system had improved traffic to and from Howrah. Thakur, who monitors the daily movements, said of the 28 locals that rolled into Howrah last Thursday between 8.30 am and 10.30 am, six reached ahead of schedule and seven others on the dot. Of the remaining 15, 13 arrived less than five minutes late. Of the 34 evening peak-hour locals, 28 left the platform on schedule. Six were late by five minutes.