Despite high demand for ‘Kavach’ protection, just 10 route km and 18 locomotives have been added across the Indian Railway network during this financial year, the Ministry information shared in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday shows.
The Ministry informed the House that ‘Kavach’ has so far been deployed on 1,465 route km and 139 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on South Central Railway.
Till the end of the last financial year, the Ministry document shows that the technology covered 1,455 rkm of South Central Railway.
Of the 1,465 rkm, 265 rkm is between Lingamapalli-Vikarabad-Wadi and Vikarabad-Bidar section; 959 rkm between Manmad-Dhone and Guntkal section; and 241 rkm between Bidar-Parbhani section.
The Ministry informed that ‘Kavach’ tenders have been awarded for Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 route km) and work is in progress on these routes.
“The Indian Railways has also taken up preparatory works including survey, Detailed Project Report (DPR) and preparation of detailed estimate on another 6,000 rKm,” the Ministry added.
WHAT IS KAVACH?
In literal sense, ‘Kavach’ means ‘armour’. It is an automatic train protection system indigenously developed by the Railway Ministry’s Research Designs and Standards Organisation in association with Indian vendors.
Taking forward the government’s AatmaNirbhar Bharat vision, Kavach has been adopted as the national automatic train protection system.
It is designed to bring a train to a halt automatically when it notices another train on the same line within a prescribed distance.
Kavach-installed trains are also meant to stop on their own when the digital system notices any manual error like “jumping” of the red signal or any other malfunction.
The system is also designed in a way that it controls the speed of the train by an automatic application of brakes in case the loco pilot fails to do so. It helps the loco pilot in running the train during inclement weather such as dense fog.
In the absence of this system, loco pilots or assistant loco pilots used to crane their necks out of the window to look out for caution signs and signals.
The Ministry informed the House that the first field trials on the passenger trains were started in February 2016. “Based on the experience so gained and independent safety assessment of the system by a third party, three firms were approved in 2018-19, for supply of Kavach… Subsequently Kavach was adopted as a National ATP system in July 2020,” the Ministry said.
Post the Balasore train tragedy that killed nearly 300 people in June this year, there were serious demands for implementation of Kavach.
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