Kavach, the indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) under operation in the South Central Railway (SCR) only to an extent of about 1,400 km of rail network is likely to have an advanced version with the trial runs to commence soon.
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Senior officials involved in the exercise said one of the three companies involved in getting the licence to make the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) equipment - Medha Servo Drives, has recently got permission to conduct trials on the Lingampalli-Sanathnagar-Vikarabad route to test the advanced version of the first prototype cleared by the Railways’ RDSO – Research Designs & Standards Organisation.
‘Kavach Version 2’ will be on the lines of the CBTC – Communication-Based Train Control System, used in the metro rail systems across the country including the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR), but not as sophisticated, they explained, requesting anonymity.
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What the new version will help the Railway authorities and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) is to reduce the infrastructure cost as there will no need for transmission towers at stations anymore because of the technology upgrade. The officials said the new version is being tested to work on 4G/5G technology using both wireless and existing optic fibre network. The electronic embedded signalling system will also be incorporated into ‘Kavach’ itself.
A drone survey is being taken up in the Vikarabad section for identifying precise RFID points to be laid along the track. “In the advanced version, loco-pilot, station master and signaling staff can be in touch with each other through ‘Kavach’. There can be communication between stations too,” they said. Once the trial runs are successful, it has to be tested on ‘live’ trains before adoption on a wider network.
Meanwhile, Railway Board had also cleared implementing the ‘Kavach’ first version to the chosen three — HBL Power Systems and Kernex Microsystems, being the other two — to implement the system in sections of Delhi-Prayagraj, Bengal, Nanded-Guntakal, Churchgate-Vadodara and so on.
These three firms were involved in TCAS development for the last 10 years — eight years of trial runs and two more years of demonstration in ‘live’ trains of SCR before getting clearance for nationwide implementation. Apparently, the Railway Board is considering allowing two more ‘fresh’ firms for the work but officials want inter-operability issues to be fixed through trial runs before allowing the newbies.
At current pace, it could take a decade and more for Indian Railways to equip the entire system with ‘Kavach’, senior officials said and highlighted the need to provide the right eco-system for ancillary industries to grow for scaling up. This is also because certain critical parts like radio equipment continue to be sourced from United States, they added.