Kavach: Indian Railways is aiming for zero train accidents with this Indigenous System

Zero Accidents in Indian Railways: The Railway Ministry is committed to provide safe, accident-free and high-speed train journeys across the country. Thus, a state-of-the-art electronic system- Kavach has been designed to help the Indian Railways network achieve zero accidents. The Kavach is an indigenous ATP system of Safety Integrity Level – 4 standards, developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry as well as trials facilitated by the South Central Railway zone. According to the national transporter, the system is meant to provide protection by preventing trains to pass the signal at Danger (Red) and avoid collision.

The Kavach system automatically activates the train braking system if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions. Besides, this also prevents collision between two locomotives equipped with a functional Kavach system. according to Indian Railways, the Kavach system is one of the cheapest, Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL – 4) certified technologies with the probability of error is one in 10,000 years. Also, it opens avenues of export of this indigenously developed state-of-the-art technology for Railways, it further said.

Following are some of the features of the Kavach system:

• It prevents Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD)
• It provides a continuous update of Movement Authority with signal aspects’ display in Driver Machine Interface / Loco Pilot operation cum Indication Panel
• There is Automatic Braking for Prevention of Over Speeding
• Auto Whistling while approaching Level Crossing Gates
• It prevents collision between two locomotives equipped with functional Kavach
  SoS Messages during emergency situations
• Centralized live monitoring of movement of trains through Network Monitor System

According to the Railway Ministry, 96 per cent of rail traffic is carried on Indian Railways High Density Network and Highly Used Network routes. In a bid to transport this rail traffic safely, the Kavach system works are being taken up the national transporter in a focused manner. Around 2,000 km will be brought under Kavach for safety and capacity augmentation in 2022-23 as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat.