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Signals, systems, checks, balances: Explaining the Odisha train disaster

The Indian Railways is deploying a new train control system, as pressure on its infrastructure increases

Subhomoy Bhattacharjee New Delhi

Premium

Odisha train crash

9 min read Last Updated : Jun 06 2023 | 3:41 PM IST

The railway line near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore was being repaired hours before the Coromandel Express passenger train passed through on June 2. The railway line or section is one of India’s busiest, serving freight trains lugging coal and iron ore from Jharkhand to ports like Odisha’s Paradeep and those in the south.

The section’s train management is fully computerised with a key role played by the electronic interlock, a term that became news after a multi-train crash involving the Coromandel Express killed more than 270 people and injured over a thousand.

In the past few years, the Indian Railways has been deploying the Centralised Traffic Control (CTC) system to replace the older Control Office Application (COA). The two systems sit at the heart of a rail network that manages signaling of interlocked regions where multiple passenger and freight trains run through.