Railways To Begin Installation Of Kavach On 10,000 Locomotives, Make It Operational In 2 Yrs: Ashwini Vaishnaw
Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Kavach 4.0 will be able to tackle all communication challenges in all geographical conditions including deserts, forests, hilly terrain, or coastal areas.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday that the Ministry of Railways will begin the installation of Kavach on 10,000 locomotives and make it operational in another two years and that all new projects will now have the protection system.
"After that, the remaining 10,000 locomotives will be taken up in a phased manner," Vaishnaw said.
He also said the Kavach will become operational on two high density routes, the 3000-km long Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata rail, will be completed by March next year.
"With the approval of Kavach 4.0 by RDSO, the Ministry of Railways has approved installation of Kavach 4.0 on 10,000 locomotives. This will help in rapid installation of Kavach over the entire network in a few years," Vaishnaw said.
"Section by section commissioning will start immediately after upgrading to Kavach 4.0," he added.
Kavach 4.0 is an updated version of Kavach and is equipped to cover various terrains across the railway network, be it deserts, forests, mountains, or coasts and in both urban and rural areas.
"It will also bring a uniformity in the system and the upgradation of the latest version will go on simultaneously in all those places where the previous version of Kavach was installed," he added.
Tenders Invited For Mumbai-Chennai & Chennai-Kolkata Sections
Sources told ABP that Kavach 4.0 met all its parameters and was completed on July 17. It has now been granted approval to install Kavach within a two-year target on 10,000 locomotives.
So far, Kavach has been deployed on 1,465 route km and 144 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on South Central Railway, as per the latest numbers from the Ministry.
In another development, Vaishnaw said that "tenders have been invited for 3300 km-long Mumbai-Chennai and Chennai-Kolkata sections along with all automatic signalling sections," he said.
"I think the tender process will be completed in another couple of months and installation will start from October 2024 onwards," he said.
About Kavach
Kavach is a spohisticated Automatic Train Protection technology to prevent train crashes and improve rail safety. It aids the loco pilot in applying automatic brakes within specified time limits incase the loco pilot fails to do so, thereby stopping the train safely. It will also allow the railways to function safely during inclement weather.
The need of this train protection system comes amid a spate of railway accidents in the past months that has claimed the lives of many.
"What has come out from all trials is that Kavach will prevent red-signal jumps of trains in 100 per cent cases," Vaishnaw said.
However, he also highlighted its limitations saying that the system will not help in the detection of cracks or any other obstruction on tracks. It is meant to take care of the issues related to error in the working of loco pilots.
He also added that Kavach will not help in improving a train's speed, which primarily depends on the upgradation of tracks along with its fencing.
The Railways will also finalise the tenders for the rollout of Kavach on 9,000 km of its network in the upcoming months.
Last month, the Research Design and Standards Organisation approved Kavach 4.0 for installation. However, the scope to upgrade the system in future along with the technological advancements also exists.
The installation of Kavach began in 2014-15 with its pilot installation project section of 250 km on the South Central railway.
Thereafter, the first field trials were carried out in 2015-16. In the next financial year, Kavach's new specification version 3.2 was finalised.
RDSO then approved three firms for the installation of of the technology. In July 2020, it was declared as a National Automatic Train Protection Syste,.
By March 2022, Kavach was installed on an additional route spanning 1200 km.
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