In line

Ranchi, Dec. 2: After Muri, the Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system — sophisticated electronics to designate tracks to approaching trains — is headed for over half a dozen other stations under Ranchi railway division.

The changeover in signalling technology that eliminates the possibility of human error and ensures a safe journey was introduced in Namkum soon after its October 4 debut in Muri, and at Gangaghat this Tuesday.

The railway authorities plan to flag off the technology at Gautamdhara, 30km from the capital, by December 15 while installation at six other stations — Ranchi, Hatia, Balsiring, Lodhma, Karra and Pokla — will be taken up soon.

Like Muri and Namkum, Jhalda and Tulin, two stations in Bengal that fall under Ranchi railway division, already boast the system.

“The work of replacing the manual method with the SSI system is on at Gautamdhara station. It will be commissioned by December 15. We plan to introduce the safe lock system at several other stations, including Ranchi and Hatia,” said senior divisional transportation manager of Ranchi division S.C. Banerjee. He, however, added that the details were yet to be chalked out.

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.

The system was commissioned at Muri on October 4. At least 50 South Eastern Railway engineers had worked for five days to install SSI, which can create as many as 386 possible routes for trains at Muri junction, the second after Adityapur to have the facility in Jharkhand. Initially, the system had thrown train schedules haywire, but Banerjee said normalcy in the timetable had now been restored.

The railway authorities also plan to run the Ranchi-Joynagar special from December 8 to January 10. The train will leave Ranchi on Mondays and Thursdays and Joynagar, Bengal, on Wednesdays and Sundays. Besides, the Bhubaneswar-Hatia Garib Rath, which has been extended upto Dhanbad, may start plying from mid-January.