Recent accident
The railway accident on June 17 involving the Sealdah-bound Kanchenjunga Express and a goods train in Darjeeling, West Bengal, has once brought focus to the absence of ‘Kavach’, India’s Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reviewed the progress of an advanced version of the ATP Kavach 4.0 a week after the accident.
He directed the installation to be taken up in “mission mode”.
Data show that availability of funds is not the worry for implementing Kavach; the issue lies with the pace at which it is being deployed
Importance of Kavach
Kavach can warn loco pilots if the train is at risk of overshooting the signal at red.
It also has the capability of automatically applying the brakes if the loco pilot fails to reduce the speed below a certain limit.
The three systems needed to implement Kavach are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags placed in the tracks; the engine setup with RFID readers, a computer, and brake interface equipment; and radio towers installed at railway stations.
Slow Progress of Implementation
The current rate of progress of installation of Kavach is sluggish.
Three firms were approved to supply the equipment in 2018-19.
Kavach was adopted as the national ATP system in July 2020.
Until February this year, of the 68,000 km of route length (Rkm), Kavach has only been installed only in 1,465 Rkm (close to 2% of the total)
Of a total of about 15,200 diesel and electric locos, only 139 are equipped with Kavach (less than 1% of the total).
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