Kavach implementation progressing rapidly on 3,000 km routes: Railways

A day after the collision of two trains in West Bengal the Railway Ministry Tuesday said the implementation of Automatic Train Protection System also known as Kavach is going on in a rapid manner on 3000 route kilometer and once completed it will help prevent such accidentsA goods train rammed into the stationary Sealdahbound Kanchanjunga Express near Rangapani 30 km from the New Jalpaiguri station in Siliguri on Monday morning killing 10 people and injuring around 40The accident triggered a wave of criticism of the railways over the delay in the implementation of the KavachIn response the ministry said Kavach is a very complex system involving six major subsystems laying optical fibre cable along the track installing telecom towers along tracks installing telecom equipment on these towers and on trains setting up data centres at stations and integrating them with the signal system installing equipment on tracks and finally installing equipment on locomotives and trainsThe system was finally certified in 2019 Despite Covid challenges work progressed and now the railway as well as equipment manufacturers are geared up to take up large projects At this point of time work is progressing rapidly on 3000 km routes Design work for other routes is also progressing very fast a senior official from the railway ministry said requesting anonymityAccording to the railways the Kavach system developed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation RDSO can trigger automatic application of brakes in case of an emergency when the train driver fails to act in time ensuring safe train operations even in bad weatherSo far Kavach has already been implemented on 1465 route km and 121 locomotives Besides the Agra division has developed a complete Kavach network on the 80km stretch between Mathura excluding the station and Palwal to conduct trials on various types of engines and trains the official saidRecently the Railway Board Chairperson and CEO Jaya Verma Sinha and railway officials of North Central and Northern Railways inspected a Kavach trial in Vande Bharat train between Palwal and VridavanSinha while travelling in the eightcar set Vande Bharat which ran at 160 kmph speed had a first hand experience of Kavach working system at red signals loop lines and other speed restriction pointsThe Railway Ministry also said there is a steep decline in the number of consequential train accidents from 473 in 200001 to 40 in 202223From 2004 to 2014 the average number of consequential train accidents was 171 per annum which significantly declined to 68 per annum during the period from 2014 to 2024 the official saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever