To ease movement of inter-State road traffic across two level crossings, the Southern Railway has interlocked them with signalling system.
The level crossing (LC) gates - LC no. 9 (Valakombu Nagoor gate in Tamil Nadu area and LC no. 20 (Nellimedu gate - one side of the gate is Tamil Nadu and the other side is Kerala) on the Palakkad - Pollachi section have been interlocked with signals.
After the interlocking, the LC gates between Pollachi and Meenakshipuram and Meenakshipuram and Muthalamad that remained closed so far have been open to road traffic. Hence, when a train arrives, the gate keeper will be directed to close the gates after which the signal will automatically turn green to allow the train to proceed.
Before the interlocking, the gate keeper had to contact the station that controls the gates to seek permission to open and close them. The gate keeper had to exchange a security code number to officially get the authority to operate the gates.
Now, the interlocking ensures safety of train movement and also hassle-free road traffic through the gates. Only after the proper closure of the level crossing gates, the signal will turn green for train movement. This will increase the confidence of the loco pilot too, say the railway officials of Palakkad Division.
