Kavach covers 25 per cent of SCR routes

The Indian Railways designed and developed the state-of-the-art electronic system to achieve zero accidents

Hyderabad: The indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System ‘Kavach’, which potentially could have prevented the Odisha triple train crash, covers one-fourth or 25 per cent of the rail route under the South Central Railway (SCR) zone, senior railway officials said on Saturday.

The Indian Railways designed and developed the state-of-the-art electronic system to achieve zero accidents. As a part of these efforts, currently, Kavach, developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), is under implementation and has been deployed on 1,455 km of the total 5,752 km in the SCR zone.

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Senior SCR officials said the objective of Kavach, which was first tested between Gullaguda and Chitggidda railway stations under the zone, is to prevent collision between two locomotives equipped with functional Kavach systems.

Currently, Kavach is being implemented by the Indian Railway in a phased manner. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inspected the trial of Kavach between Gullaguda and Chitgidda stations on the Lingampalli-Vikarabad section in the Secunderabad division last March.

Currently, Kavach work is in progress on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors, covering a distance of 3,000 route km. “It is a completely indigenous technology developed by the Indian Railway. If there is any human error, the system immediately takes control of the train speed and automatically controls track changes and speed restrictions. It will stop if there is any obstacle ahead and the chance of collision,” a senior SCR official said, adding that the technology is on par with similar technologies in the world.

The other benefits of Kavach include controlling the speed of trains by the automatic application of brakes on the approach of turnouts, repeating of signal aspects in cab, which is useful for higher speeds and in foggy weather, and auto whistling at level-crossing gates.

“When the train runs on bridges, level-crossings and other points, the Kavach system automatically regulates the speed as per the local conditions, in a safe manner,” the SCR official said.