Indian Railways will start rolling out the updated Kavach 4.0 — the indigenous automated train protection system — across its network March onwards. The first phase will see deployment of the system on 10,000 locomotives (engines) and over 9,000 route km (Rkms) over the next few years. At least 3,000 Rkms will have Kavach coverage by end of this fiscal, Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Initial deployment will start with Delhi – Howrah and Delhi – Mumbai routes covering 3,000 Rkms, identified as high density routes, within this fiscal. Section by section commissioning will start immediately after upgrading to Kavach 4.0.

This will be followed by coverage of the Delhi – Chennai and Mumbai – Chennai routes covering 3,300 Rkms. Subsequently, all automatic signalling sections of 5,000 Rkm will be covered through Kavach.

So far, Kavach roll-out is across 1,465 Rkm, just about 3 per cent of total 68,000 Rkms of the Railways. At least 5,000–5,500 Rkms are expected to be covered through Kavach every year “next year onwards” as “new capacities come on-stream”.

According to him, for the first phase, 10,000 devices – or 50 per cent of the total locomotives owned by the Railways – will be fitted with this anti-collision system. The approximate cost of installation of a device in each locomotive works out to be around ₹72,00,000.

Effective cost of Kavach installation will be ₹7,200 crore in Phase I.

A Budget provision of ₹1,08,000 crore has been made towards investment in Railway safety, that include signalling works, track repair and doubling, maintenance, repair and replacement and also Kavach installation.

“We have decided to keep the tenders in two phases. The first phase will cover 10,000 locomotives and cover 9,000 Rkms or more. The second one will cover the remaining 10,000-odd locomotives (including the various electric multiple units). Subsequently it will cover the entire Railway network. Survey work across all 8,000 stations will be completed by December. New locomotives, currently under manufacturing, will come fitted with automated train protection devices,” Vaishnaw told businessline.

Incidentally, the Railways Minister has been under fire from the Congress – led Opposition for train accidents being reported over the last few months. Since June – when the Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power for a third term – at least four major accidents have been reported leading to loss of 10-odd lives. The discussions have been on alleged slow roll-out of Kavach.

“Roll-out will start with the ultra high frequency software system and subsequently be upgraded to LTE,” the Minister said.

The latest version of Kavach include temporary speed restriction, station to station Kavach communication for improved reliability, improved location precision, improved braking, among others.