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Indian Railways successfully completes trial tests of rail safety technology ‘Kavach’

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Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways, Communication and Electronics & Information Technology recently inspected the trial of ‘Kavach’ working system between the railway stations of Gullaguda and Chitgidda, which fall on the Lingampalli-Vikarabad section of South-Central Railway in Secunderabad division. On this occasion, Chairman and CEO of Railway Board, V K Tripathi was also present along with other senior officials of the railway department.

The trial of ‘Kavach’ was conducted in the presence of the Hon’ble Union minister to assure the process and operation of the technology. Hon’ble Union Minister was present on-board the locomotive which was planned to move from Gullaguda towards the Chitgidda station. The locomotive that moved in the opposite direction, that is from Chitgidda towards Gullaguda, had the chairman and CEO of Railway Board, V K Tripathi onboard.

railway security

The trial of ‘Kavach’ was conducted in the presence of the Hon’ble Union Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw.

As both the engines were moving towards each other from respective stations, a head-on-collision situation was created during the trial, in which the ‘Kavach’ system successfully initiated the system of automatic braking and stopped the locomotives apart from each other at a distance of 380 metres. The crossing of the red signal was also tested, where the locomotives did not cross the red light as the ‘Kavach’ system necessitated the automatic brakes. The sound of the whistle was loud and clear when the gate signal was detained. During the trial, no sound or braking system was manually touched by the crew. When the speed restriction was tested, ‘Kavach’ automatically reduced the speed of the locomotive from 60 Kmpl to 30 Kmpl, as the locomotive entered the loop line.

The KAVACH is an originally developed ATP system by the Research Design and Standards Organisation and Indian Industry and trials, which are facilitated by Central railway to focus on train operation safety across Indian Railways. The electronic system of Kavach has 4 standards – safety integrity level.

One of the cheapest and certified technologies of safety integrity level 4 (SIL-4), Kavach has the 1 in 10,000 years of probability. This project will also help to open ways for the export of this indigenous technology for railways around the world, which will also contribute to the economy.

KAVACH is an indigenously developed ATP system by the Research Design and Standards Organisation.

The Indian Railways carry 95% of the railway network through its high-density network and other network routes which are highly used. Following is the priority set given by the Railway Board per which, the traffic will be transported safely with Kavach’s work.

First priority: On the high-density routes and on New Delhi – Mumbai & New Delhi – Howrah sections for the speed of 160 Kmpl, which will have centralised traffic control and automatic block signalling, in order to avoid accidents as the route is highly used by drivers.

Second priority: On the highly used networks along with Centralised traffic control and automatic signal blocking.

Third Priority: On other High-Density Routes which carry a large number of passengers with Automatic Block Signalling.

Fourth Priority:  All other routes remaining for the general safety purpose.

In the year 2022-2023, Kavach will cover a large network of 2,000 km for safety and capacity expansion, as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

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