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How many trains in India have ‘Kavach’ installed? Railways minister replies
During the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament, CPI MP Binoy Viswam asked a series of questions from railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the ‘Kavach’.
The indigenously developed ‘Kavach’ automatic protection technology has been in the news since the horrific triple train accident in Odisha's Balasore last month, which claimed lives of nearly 300 passengers and injured more than 800. The railways had confirmed that the ‘Kavach’ was not installed on the route, which might have stopped the express trains from colliding with each other.
During the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament, Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Binoy Viswam had asked a series of questions from railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the ‘Kavach’ system.
The opposition MP asked how many trains had ‘Kavach’ installed out of total trains in the country. Vaishnaw replied that a toal of 121 locomotives (including electric multiple unit rakes) belonging to Secunderabad division (30), Hyderabad division (56), Guntakal division (28) and Vijaywada division (7) of South Central Railways are equipped with ‘Kavach’. “The trains hauled by Kavach fitted locomotives change according to the operational requirements of Railways as per loco links”, the minister's reply added.
Viswam asked how much money has been spent by the government on the creation of ‘Kavach’ till date. The minister replied that a total of ₹351.91 crore has been spent on its implementation.
The CPI MP asked the number of private companies involved in the creation of this technology and amount paid to them. To this unstarred question in Rajya Sabha, the minister replied that a total of three companies have been involved in the creation of ‘Kavach’ and the amount paid is approximately ₹351.91 crore including track side and locomotive works.
The CPI MP also asked if there had been any accidents or failures in a train installed with the ‘Kavach’ system. The minister said there had been no mishap.
What is ‘Kavach’?
A ‘Kavach’ system alerts when a loco pilot jumps a signal and takes control of the brakes bringing the train to a halt automatically on noticing another train on the same line. This technology was announced in 2022 Budget as a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. A total of 2,000 km of rail network was planned to be brought under this technology.
This technology has been developed indigenously by Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in association with three Indian vendors and has been adopted as the National Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System.
