After eliminating unmanned level crossings, Southern Railway has embarked on a mission to interlock all the manned level crossings to ensure safety.
The interlocking system will provide for complete control over the gates where manual intervention of the gatekeeper is not required except in case of an emergency.
Though both the types of gates are manned, the interlocked ones provide more safety since the signals to the approaching train turn red when the gates are open.
To start with, engineers plan to completely convert manned level crossings gates in the Chennai, Salem and Palghat divisions by the end of this financial year.
“In non-interlocked gates, the Station Master has to call the gatekeeper over phone and instruct him to close the gate for the passage of a particular train. They exchange numerical pass codes for opening and closing the gates. In one instance recently in the Madurai division, the Station Master didn’t give the alert and let the train go. But the loco pilot stopped the train on seeing the red banner flags installed on tracks when the gates are open to traffic,” a senior railway official said.
Controlled by signal
Interlocking is an integrated system where the gates are controlled by the signal.
The gatekeeper would have the option to open the gates in the event of an exigency like the movement of an ambulance or a fire tender.
“When gates are open in the interlocked system, the signals on both sides more than 1 km ahead would be in red, which means danger and the loco pilot would stop the train. In non-interlocked gates, the gatekeeper won’t take the risk of opening the gates once they are closed,” the official said.
In 2020-21, Southern Railway would take up interlocking of manned gates in the Tiruchi and Madurai divisions.
The chances of accidents at interlocked gates are remote, the official said, adding that efforts were also on to completely eliminate level crossings by converting manned level crossings into road under bridge and road overbridge in a phased manner.
