Indian Railways tests Kavach train collision protection system with railway minister on board

Kavach: Indian Railways tested 'Kavach', automatic train protection system by making two trains hurtle towards each other at full speed today, one with the Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and another with Railway Board chairman on board .

The anti-collission system was tested on the Sanatnagar-Sankarpalli section in Secunderabad. The system is expected to prevent the two trains from colliding despite being on full speed. The latest trial run was conducted to test SPAD (signal is passed at danger), to see what happens when a train passes a stop-signal when not allowed to do so.

Kavach is the world's cheapest automic train collision protection system. Kavach means armour, which was worn by soldiers in the medieval era to protect themselves in the battlefield. 

#WATCH | Hyderabad: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw witnessed the functioning of 'Kavach' an indigenously designed Automatic Train Protection system.

(Video Source: Ministry of Railways) pic.twitter.com/8oypYVvB9T

— ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2022

Kavach System- How does it work?

• Kavach system has been built to help the Railways achieve the goal of "zero accidents".  The indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system has been designed to bring a train to a halt automatically when it notices another train on the same line within a prescribed distance.
• The system will make the trains to stop on their own when it notices any manual error like "jumping" of the red signal or any other malfunction.
• Kavach will control the speed of the train through automatic application of brakes in case the loco pilot fails to do so.
• The system works on the principle of continuous update of movement by using high frequency radio communication. 
• The system conforms to SIL-4 (Safety Integrity Level - 4), the highest level of safety certification.

Benefits

• The Kavach system will help prevent accidents on rail tracks like collision of trains. 
• It will only cost Rs 50 lakh per kilometre to operate in comparison to about Rs 2 crore worldwide.
• Once the system is activated, all trains within a 5-km range will halt to provide protection for trains on adjacent tracks.
• Currently, the loco-pilots or assistant loco-pilots have to look out for caution signs and signals.
• It will also include stationary equipment to gather signaling inputs and relay them to a 
  central system to enable seamless communication with the train crew and stations.

Background

Kavach system was announced in the 2022 Union Budget as a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Around 2,000 km of rail network is planned to be brought under the indigenous system to enable safety and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.

The system has been deployed on over 1098 route km and 65 locos in on-going projects of South Central Railway. It if further being planned to be implemented on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi Howrah corridors, which comprise a total stretch of around 3000 km.