Kavach: Know Indian Railways' technology that can prevent two trains from colliding - 10 points

Terming the indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system--'Kavach' as a phenomenal improvement in safety and a great contribution to accident prevention, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said the technology will be implemented over entire rail network in the country and will also be exported to the world in the next coming years, even as he had a first-hand experience of the collision aversion mechanism by being part of a live demo here.

Vaishnaw, who travelled in a locomotive and inspected the working of 'Kavach' including on-site demonstration of head-on collision, said it is a major milestone in the history of Indian Railways.

This was demonstrated between Gullaguda and Chitgidda railway stations on Lingampalli -Vikarabad section of Secunderabad Division in South Central Railway (SCR), with Vaishnaw travelling in a locomotive in one direction, while Vinay Kumar Tripathi, Chairman and CEO, Railway Board was travelling in another on the opposite direction on the same track and 'Kavach' worked as desired to stop the trains and avert a collision.

The Minister witnessed how the technology avoids trains passing Signal at Danger, how their speed is automatically regulated while passing through loop lines and how rear-end collision is automatically avoided.

Know about 'Kavach' anti-collision technology:

Kavach, which literally means armour, is being promoted by the Railways as the world's cheapest automatic train collision protection system.

Announced in the 2022 Union Budget as a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, 2,000 km of rail network is planned to be brought under 'Kavach' for safety and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.

Kavach is developed by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry.

It increases passenger safety. It is designed, developed and manufactured in India and will be deployed in India and exported to the world, in the coming years. 

"If we bring such a technology from Europe it will cost between Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore per kilometre to operate while 'Kavach', which is indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection system will cost between Rs 40 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per km and is a step ahead when compared to technology offered by other similar system," he said.

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The target is to install Kavach in 2,000 kms and it will be deployed on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors initially. And in subsequent years 'Kavach' will be deployed in 4,000 km to 5,000 km every year, he added.

Kavach is designed to bring a train to a halt automatically when it notices another train on the same line within a prescribed distance. Trains will also stop on their own when digital system notices any manual error like "jumping" of the red signal or any other malfunction.

The 'On-Board Display of Signal Aspect' (OBDSA) is to help loco pilots check signals on board consoles. RFID tags are provided on the tracks and at station yard for each track and signals for track identification, location of trains and identification of train direction.

Once the system is activated, all trains within a 5-km range will halt to provide protection for trains on adjacent tracks. Currently, loco-pilots or assistant loco-pilots usually crane their necks out of the window to look out for caution signs and signals, said officials.

It also includes stationary equipment to gather signaling and loco inputs and relay them to a central system for seamless communication with the train crew and stations.

(PTI inputs)