The North Western Railway aims to implement the Kavach anti-collision system in its zone, which spans across Rajasthan and Haryana, in the next two years, said a senior railway official on Monday.
According to the official, the North Western Railway operates three Vande Bharat Express trains that are equipped with Kavach, the indigenously developed train protection system. However, the anti-collision device cannot be used in the railway zone because the system has not been implemented in this region of the country as of now.
Tenders worth Rs 426 crore for Kavach
“We have awarded tenders worth Rs 426 crore for Kavach to be rolled out on 1,600 km across the zone,” the official said, adding that the LTE survey to ascertain the availability of 4G and 5G networks along the route is underway.
Last month, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a Parliament said that Kavach has been deployed on 1,465 route km on the South Central Railway. He that tenders for Kavach have been awarded for the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors, and work is currently in progress on these routes.
Indian Railways is in the process of preparing a detailed project report and a detailed estimate for an additional 6,000 route km. Additionally, 121 locomotives, including Electric Multiple Unit rakes, on the South Central Railway have been equipped with the Kavach system.
The train accident in Odisha's Balasore, resulting in the loss of over 290 lives and injuries to at least 1,000 individuals, has highlighted the significance of the railway's automatic train protection system, "Kavach." The railways have clarified that "Kavach" was not available on the route where the accident took place on June 2.
What is Kavach technology in Railways
The indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System known as 'Kavach' was announced by the Ministry of Railways on March 23, 2022, as a significant step toward improving train safety in India.
The Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) developed Kavach with three Indian vendors and made it the National ATP System for Indian Railways.
Kavach was developed to support train operations in adverse weather conditions like dense fog and to assist locomotive pilots in avoiding Signal Passing At Danger (SPAD) and overspeeding.
The system alerts the loco pilot when a train jumps a signal, which is among the leading causes of collisions. The system can alert the loco pilot, take control of the brakes and bring the train to a halt automatically when it notices another train on the same line within a prescribed distance.
The implementation of the Kavach system began in a phased manner, with the first field trials on passenger trains starting in February 2016.
(With PTI inputs)
