Relay system gets off to a snag-ridden start

NEW DELHI: After a full 10 days, New Delhi railway station was finally back to looking busy again. Closed for the route relay interlocking system since September 5, the station started functioning in a full-fledged manner from Tuesday.
Though some of the trains had already started plying since Sunday, it was on Tuesday that the new interlocking system faced real rail traffic.While engineers who had worked day and night to complete the work breathed a sigh of relief, commuters were left sweating on the first day.
From Rajdhani to EMUs, most of the trains headed towards New Delhi station were delayed because of some minor glitches in the new system. Explaining the cause of the holdups, a Northern Railway spokesperson said,
"Just as a new machine takes time to smoothen out, the point setting system that is instrumental in signalling is taking time to adjust. That's the sole reason for the delay of some trains."
According to Railway officials, whenever a new system gets installed, especially of the stature of the interlocking system that has entered the Guinness Book of World Records, the first few days are always a testing period. Northern Railway has laid 1278 routes, the largest in the Indian Railways network. For this purpose, 27 lakh metre of wiring was used, again a world record for this kind of work.
The Railways has also commissioned two more platforms at the station. Another two would be commissioned by mid-October, said officials.
The delay of trains ranged from a few minutes to a few hours. While New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express was delayed by 4 hours 15 minutes; Sealdah Rajdhani reached late by 2 hours 25 minutes. The other important trains that got delayed included Lucknow Shatabdi, Amritsar Shatabdi, Sampooran Kranti and Prayagraj Express.
Meanwhile, commuters felt badly harassed. Said A K Sharma, who was waiting for his relatives at New Delhi railway station, "I have been waiting for Swantantra Express that was scheduled to arrive at 12:35pm, but it is 4pm and there has been no announcement about its arrival yet."
The Northern Railways officials, however, claim that this is just a transition period. Said a spokesperson, "It's unfortunate that the trains got delayed on the first day of the new system, but it's a matter of just one or two days before everything falls into place." With new tracks, New Delhi station has also planned to reduce approach time to platforms.