Railway Minister announces expansion plans for advanced train protection technology
India’s indigenous Automatic Train Protection system, Kavach, is set to revolutionize railway safety on major routes by March 2025.
JAMSHEDPUR – Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Kavach Automatic Train Protection system will be operational on 3,000 km of Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata routes by March 2025.
The advanced Kavach version 4.0, approved by RDSO on July 17, is designed to address communication challenges across various geographical conditions.
This upgrade will be applied uniformly at all locations where the previous version was installed.
The railway ministry has approved the installation of Kavach on 10,000 locomotives in the next two years.
Tenders for installing Kavach on the 3,300-km Mumbai-Chennai and Chennai-Kolkata routes, as well as 5,000 km of automatic signalling sections, will be invited soon.
"The tender process will be completed in another couple of months and installation will start from October 2024 onwards," Vaishnaw stated.
The installation capacity has increased from 1,000 km annually to 4,000 km, enabling faster implementation.
With the addition of two more companies, the annual installation capacity will rise to about 5,500 km.
The process includes setting up station Kavach systems, RFID tags on tracks, and signalling towers.
A LiDAR survey of approximately 8,000 stations is expected to be completed by January next year.
Kavach is designed to prevent red-signal violations 100% of the time and can automatically control train speed and apply brakes to prevent accidents.
While it doesn’t detect track obstructions, Kavach addresses errors made by locomotive pilots, enhancing overall railway safety.
