TBM Staff - Mumbai
In a move to enhance railway safety, the Indian Railways has set an ambitious goal of implementing the Kavach system across 44,000 km of track within the next five years. Kavach, an automated train protection system, is designed to prevent collisions on the same track.
The decision comes in the wake of the recent West Bengal rail accident, prompting Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to direct officials to expedite the implementation of Kavach in a structured mission mode. The Ministry is currently working on installing the system on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes, with tenders for an additional 6,000 km expected to be issued by the end of this year.
Kavach, developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in partnership with Indian companies, is an advanced electronic system that meets Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4) standards. It oversees train speeds, assists operators in identifying danger signals, and ensures safe operations even in challenging weather conditions.
The system uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags placed along tracks and in station yards to determine track positions and train directions. When activated, trains within a 5-km radius stop to ensure the safe passage of nearby trains. Kavach also features an On Board Display of Signal Aspect (OBDSA) to aid operators in poor visibility conditions.
The Indian Railways has already implemented Kavach on 139 locomotives operating on the South Central Railway network and has initiated tenders for the installation of the system across 10,000 kilometres. This move aligns with the global trend, as most major railway networks transitioned to similar Automatic Train Protection (ATP) systems in the 1980s. In India, Kavach was officially adopted as the national ATP system in 2020 after successful trials and achieving SIL-4 safety certification.
