Indian Railways State-of-the-art indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection system – namely KAVACH – has been deployed over South Central Railway Zone for a total distance of 1,445 Route Kms (RKms).
More details:
- Kavach is a major step taken by Indian railways in taking forward Hon’ble Prime Minter of India’s initiative of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. During the last financial year i.e., 2021-22, a total of 859 Rkms of SCR network has been bought under deployment of Kavach. This is the best-ever performance by the Zone in a financial year, since the commencement of the Project.
- ‘KAVACH’ has been developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with Indian Industry. South Central Railway has been closely associated with its implementation since the development stage and is facilitating trials to achieve the objective of safety in train operations across Indian Railways.
- KAVACH is meant to provide protection by preventing trains to pass the Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) (i.e., Red – Stop Signal) and avoid collision. It activates the train breaking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions. In addition, it prevents collision between two Trains / Locomotives, equipped with functional KAVACH system.
- During the development phase, KAVACH was implemented for a length of 264 Kms covering 25 stations across Wadi – Vikarabad – Sanatnagar and Vikarabad – Bidar sections over South Central Railway. Later, during 2020-21, the system has been further deployed for additional 322 Kms covering 32 stations.
- In the last financial year i.e., 2021-22, the system has been implemented in additional 859 Kms covering 77 stations. With this, the cumulative deployment of Kavach has reached to 1,445 Kms (including 68 RKms of Automatic signalling) covering 133 stations, 29 LC Gates and 74 Locomotives. The sections covered under this are – Manmad – Mudkhed – Nizamabad – Sitafalmandi – Kurnool – Guntakal (excluding Secunderabad and Guntakal Stations); Parbhani – Bidar – Vikarabad – Wadi and Wadi – Sanatnagar.
- Main Features of Kavach:
- Prevention of Trains / Locomotives Passing Signal at Danger (SPAD).
- Continuous update of Movement Authority with display of signal aspects in Driver Machine Interface (DMI) / Loco Pilot operation cum Indication Panel (LPOCIP).
- Automatic Braking for Prevention of Over Speeding.
- Auto-Whistling while approaching Level Crossing Gates.
- Prevention of collision between two Locomotives equipped with functional KAVACH.
- SoS Messages during emergency situations.
- Centralized live monitoring of Train movements through Network Monitor System.
Shri Arun Kumar Jain, General Manager (In-charge), SCR has complimented Signal & Telecom officials and staff both at the Zonal and Divisional Levels for their excellent hard work and dedication exhibited since the commencement of the project. He has stated that at the next stages, Kavach system will be extended to some more sections bringing the major part of the Zone under Kavach network.
Source: South Central Railway- Press Release
