To make the railway operations fast and safe, reduce chances of accidents and cut down on manpower, a project on centralised route relay interlocking is on.

According to Assistant Traffic Manager Sher Singh, the project worth Rs 200 crore began last year and would be completed by March next. "About 75 per cent of the work is complete," claims Singh.

The project aims at streamlining and centralising the route setting, besides lowering of the signal. At present, as many as six persons need to co-ordinate with each other for these functions.

"Once the project is complete, details of operations will be on an illuminated panel inside the newly-constructed section and only one person would be required for route setting and lowering of the signal," says Singh, adding that after Ludhiana, this would be the second such railway station in the region to use centralised route relay interlocking technology.

Bathinda station boasts of a railway network covering six different directions-- Bathinda-Bikaner, Bathinda-Hisar, Bathinda-Delhi, Bathinda-Ambala, Bathinda-Ferozepur and Bathinda-Ganganagar. As many as 64 trains, including those starting from Bathinda and those using it as a transit point, leave for different destinations daily. And these include 28 mail express trains and 36 passenger trains.