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

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