5 months ago
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According to officials, astir 25% enactment connected these routes has been commissioned and is successful ready-to-use condition, portion large components for the remaining 75% person already been installed.
Having missed the 2nd deadline of December 2025, the Railways is present hopeful of operationalising the automatic bid extortion system, Kavach, connected routes connecting the nationalist superior with Mumbai and Howrah sometime successful 2026, with dependable advancement and an assertive approach, officials said.
Kavach is an indigenously developed, highly technology-intensive strategy that helps loco pilots support specified velocity limits by automatically applying brakes if the thrust fails to bash so.
According to the officials, astir 25% enactment connected these routes has been commissioned and is successful ready-to-use condition, portion large components for the remaining 75% person already been installed.
"We are doing our level champion to operationalise Kavach connected the Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata routes, hoping to execute it successful 2026," officials said.
The Railway Ministry connected August 7, 2024, said that enactment to instal Kavach would beryllium completed connected the said routes by March 2025. It announced the hold of the deadline from March to December 2025 connected February 1, 2025, successful a fund papers titled 'Railways estimates for Revised Estimates 2024-25 and Budget Estimates 2025-26'.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw provided an update connected the advancement of Kavach installation connected December 17 successful the Lok Sabha erstwhile the Congress MP Mallu Ravi asked the circumstantial reasons for the revised deadline of December 2025 for the installation of 'Kavach' 4.0 connected the high-density Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes and the percent of this enactment completed arsenic of November 1, 2025.
"After extended and elaborate trials, Kavach Version 4.0 has been successfully commissioned connected 738 way km (RKm), including the Palwal-Mathura-Nagda conception (633 Rkm) connected Delhi-Mumbai way and the Howrah-Bardhaman conception (105 Rkm) connected Delhi-Howrah route," Vaishnaw said.
He added, "Kavach implementation has been taken up successful equilibrium sections of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors." Updating the Lower House connected the advancement of Kavach components connected the high-density routes, including Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors, the Minister said, “Optical fibre cablegram has been laid on 7,129 km with the installation of 800 telecom towers.”
He added that different Kavach components, specified arsenic Station Kavach, person been installed astatine 860 stations, track-side instrumentality connected 5,672 way km and Loco Kavach connected 4,154 locomotives.
Experts said that with a important summation successful bid operations implicit the years, loco pilots request method immunodeficiency to minimise the hazard of quality error.
The archetypal tract trials of Kavach connected the rider trains were started successful February 2016, and successful July 2020, it was adopted arsenic the National ATP system.
The Ministry claimed that it conducted a proceedings of the Kavach 3.2 mentation connected the 1,465 way connected South Central Railway and utilized the acquisition to motorboat the 4.0 mentation connected July 16, 2024.
"Kavach 4.0 covers each the large features required for the divers railway network. This is simply a important milestone successful information for Indian Railways. Within a abbreviated period, Indian Railways has developed, tested and started deploying the Automatic Train Protection System," Vaishnaw said successful the Lok Sabha.
He added that track-side Kavach implementation enactment has been taken up connected 15,512 way km covering each Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), Golden Diagonal (GD), and High Density Network (HDN) and identified sections of Indian Railways.
The Minister besides stated that bids person been invited for equipping different 9,069 locomotives with Kavach 4.0, arsenic it has been progressively done successful a phased mode successful locomotives.
Highlighting the challenges, officials said that initially, determination were lone 3 companies approved to instal Kavach connected the Indian Railways network, but present galore caller companies are successful the process of getting approval.
"The fig of companies approved to instal Kavach is present implicit five, and we are hoping that successful 2026 it whitethorn transverse 20. Indian Railways needs much than 50 archetypal instrumentality manufacturers to expedite the installation process, arsenic the broad-gauge web is 78,000 km agelong and volition proceed to grow with caller areas being added to the obstruction network," officials said.
