Railway engineers check the main control panel of Solid State Interlocking system while others work on the tracks (above) before its commissioning at Muri junction on Monday. Pictures by Prashant Mitra

Muri, Oct. 4: From today, the all-important and busy Muri junction will be using sophisticated electronics to designate tracks to approaching trains, a changeover in signalling technology that eliminates the possibility of human error and ensures a safe journey for all.

At least 50 South Eastern Railway (SER) engineers have been at work for the last five days to install Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system, which can create as many as 386 possible routes for trains at Muri junction, the second after Adityapur to have the facility in Jharkhand.

Divisional railway manager of Ranchi railway division V.K. Agarwal said Muri junction, which redirects as many as 200 goods and some top-draw passenger trains everyday, was now equipped with the country’s biggest interlocking system.

If Muri railway junction has 386 possible railway routes now, Mughalsarai had 370. “Muri,” he explained, “is an important junction where trains from four directions converge. The SSI system now in place will ensure complete railway safety.”

The SSI system allows a station manager to control train movements single-handedly from the main control panel of his office. Once a particular route is selected and locked for a particular train, the control panel will not allow the same route to be chosen for another train — even if the station manager does so by mistake.

A system such as this one, claim railway officials, would have prevented the tragedy at Sainthia in Bengal where an approaching train collided with another waiting at a platform on July 19, killing 60 and injuring 90.

Sixty-five kilometres from the state capital, Muri junction has trains coming in from Ranchi, Bokaro, Barkakana and Tatanagar before being re-routed to various destinations including Calcutta, Delhi, Patna and the Northeast.

Among the more popular passenger trains passing through are Rajdhani Express, Hatia-Howrah Express, Jammu-Tawi Express and Sampark Kranti Express.

The earlier manual system of track locking and route selection at Muri carried the risk of human error as it involved railway officials freezing on a particular track for a route after a series of internal telephone conversations among them. The process was time consuming and often led to trains being delayed.

In the new system, however, the station manager can finalise a route through an automated control panel.

In railway signalling parlance, “interlocking” is an arrangement that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks at junctions or crossings. An interlocking is so designed that it is impossible to give a “clear” signal to a train unless its route is proved to be safe.

The new system is good news for travellers. Regulars headed for the capital from Calcutta on the Ranchi-Hatia Express are likely to experience the difference first — they are likely to be spared the customary half-an-hour delay at Muri for a “line clear” signal.