Indian Railways tightens its belt, applies ‘armor’ on 1465 km long route
Kavach, an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, has so far been deployed on 1465 route km and 139 locomotives, the government told Parliament on Friday. “At present, Kavach tenders have been awarded for Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors (about 3000 route km) and work on these routes is in progress,” the Railway Minister said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. Indian Railways has also started preparatory work including preparation of survey, Detailed Project Report (DPR) and detailed estimates on another 6000 RKM.
There are currently three Indian OEMs that have been approved for the armour. Efforts are being made to develop more OEMs to increase the armor's capabilities and scale up implementation. “Kavach has so far been deployed on 1465 route km and 139 locomotives (including electric multiple unit rakes) on the following sections of South Central Railway: Lingampalli – Vikarabad – Wadi and Vikarabad – Bidar sections (265 route km), Manmad-Mudkhed. -Dhon- Guntakal section (959 km) and Bidar-Parbhani section (241 km), he said.
Kavach is a highly technology intensive system, requiring the highest level of security certification. Kavach assists the loco pilot in running the train within the specified speed limit by applying automatic brakes if the loco pilot fails to do so and also helps in running the train safely during inclement weather.
The first field trials on passenger trains were started in February 2016. Based on the experience gained and independent security assessment of the systems by a third party (Independent Security Assessor: ISA), three firms were approved in 2018-19 for supply. shield. Kavach was subsequently adopted as the national ATP system in July 2020.
