Pakistan Railways (PR) would install a computer based interlocking system with colour light signals and electric point machines at 54 stations. The colour light signals would be provided at 31-railway station while 23 stations would be equipped with electric point machines to ensure efficiency and better performance.
An official at Pakistan Railways on Friday told APP that the decades old signalling system presently, being utilised in Pakistan Railways, lags behind in terms of effectiveness and execution. The official said to modernise the signaling system on Pakistan Railways network the authorities have been making efforts to secure funds through Federal government and donor partners in China.
Regarding projects being implemented in collaboration with Chins, he said these are replacement of old and obsolete signal gear on Lodhran-Shahdara Bagh section and rehabilitation of damaged assets during the riots in December, 2007. Besides, he said auto block system on 433 km length and automatic train protection (ATP) system in 160 locos will also be provided on Lodhran-Shahdara Bagh section.
The official said with the ATP system, train will stop automatically before red signal in case the train driver fails to apply brakes due to any reason. He further said the contracts for these projects have been awarded to a consortium of M/s Bombardier (Sweden) and M/s CRSC (China). The signal material such as cab signalling, frequency coded track circuits, DG sets, batteries, cables, level crossings equipments, telecommunications and LED signals would be supplied by China. The official said the work is in progress as some of the projects are scheduled to be completed by March 2012 and some are expected in November 2013. The safety, capacity and efficiency of the train operations will enhance considerably with the provision of latest signalling systems, he added.