Kavach deployment across 3,000 km progressing steadily: Minister of Railways

Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was addressing concerns that the deployment of the indigenously developed anti-collision system - Kavach - is slow

Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visits Tata’s iPhone manufacturing plant, at Hosur in Krishnagiri district on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: ANI

Addressing apprehensions that the year-on-year deployment of the indigenously developed anti-collision system for the Indian Railways - Kavach - is slow, Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the first tender for route length of 3,000 kms is progressing steadily. 

Mr. Vaishnaw said on November 29 that the tender was rolled out in December 2022 for Mumbai to Delhi and Delhi to Howrah High-Density Network corridors and has multiple components to it. “The Radio Survey and Design part is 98% complete, the tower installation work is 51% done, optical fibre cables have been laid out in 45% of the area and up to 33% work is complete on railway stations,” Mr. Vaishnaw said. 

In reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha about the extent of Kavach deployment, Mr. Vaishnaw had earlier mentioned that in 2018-19, Kavach was deployed along 250 kms, in 2019-20 along another 15 kms, in 2020-21 yet another 321 kms were covered, while in 2021-22 another 859 kms were added and in 2022-23 only 20 kms were further added. 

“So far Kavach has been deployed along roughly 1,500 kms,” Mr. Vaishnaw said. The cost of deploying Kavach for every kilometre is ₹80 to ₹90 lakhs. Indian Railways has a total route length of 68,000 kms. 

Three companies - Medha Servo Drives, HBL Power Systems and Kernex Microsystems are working with the Indian Railways for rolling out Kavach. “Three more companies - Kyosan, Siemens and GG Tronics are in the pipeline to join,” Mr. Vaishnaw said. 

Mr. Vaishnaw also added that the Intrusion Detection System introduced by the Northeast Frontier Railway in elephant corridors of Assam across 151 km had proven successful in preventing elephant deaths due to train hits with an accuracy of 99.5%. “We are sanctioning this technology in 700 km of elephant-prone areas which will be rolled out in the next seven to eight months at a cost of ₹181 crore,” he said. 

“The optical fibre technology deployed along the tracks detects any heavy movement like approaching elephants and immediately alerts the loco pilot to slow down the train,” Mr. Vaishnaw said. 

The Indian Railways now wants to deploy this technology in collaboration with Ministry of Environment and Forests in Assam, Bengal, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, some parts of Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.