Purnachandra Rao Vallabhaneni

Electronic Interlocking on Indian Railways Purnachandra Rao Vallabhaneni

Microprocessor controlled railway signaling or commonly termed Electronic Interlocking is in operation from the late 1980s on the World Railways and introduced in India in the 1990s. It has replaced older relay based and electro-mechanical systems in phases. As software is present extensively in such systems, safety is of prime concern to the users, in addition to the requirements of reliability. Methods of ensuring safety and preventing hazards have been covered extensively in the book. -Details of all the types of Electronic Interlocking systems installed on Indian Railways are illustrated. -The advantage of a single processor with concurrent error detection compared to two out of two and two out of three modular systems in the matter of reliability, safety and economy has been discussed. -Some methods of hazard analysis relevant to electronic systems have been dealt, with suggestions for improvement of components for safety and reliability. -Verification of hardware and software with computer aided methods along with simulation has been described. -Formal verification of railway interlocking with the application of theoretical computer science and software tools has been explained. -Application of systems engineering to the operation and maintenance of electronic interlocking system for enhancing safety is covered in a separate chapter.