Indian Railways Approves Two Kavach Projects Worth ₹341 Crore

Indian Railways has approved two Kavach projects worth ₹341 crore to strengthen railway safety and modernise signalling infrastructure across its network. The projects will cover 1,409 Route Kilometres (RKM), accelerating the deployment of India's indigenous train protection system and enhancing operational safety.

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¨     The projects include ₹201 crore for 811 RKM in Ambala Division and ₹140 crore for 598 RKM in Ahmedabad Division for the deployment of Kavach 4.0.

¨     The projects are being implemented under the umbrella programme for the provision of Kavach with an LTE-based communication backbone across the remaining routes of Indian Railways.

¨     Kavach rollout is being prioritised on High-Density Network (HDN) and Highly Utilised Network (HUN) routes, which together carry the overwhelming majority of railway traffic.

As of March 2026, the progress achieved are:

¨     3,103 RKM equipped with Kavach.

¨     767 stations and 4,277 locomotives fitted with the system.

¨     8,570 km of Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) laid and 1,100 telecom towers installed.

What is Kavach?

¨     Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system developed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry.

¨     It was initially developed as the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and was adopted as the national ATP system of Indian Railways in 2020.

¨     Kavach 4.0 has been certified to Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4), the highest level of railway safety assurance, and it supports train operations up to 160 kmph.

Key Features and Components:

¨     Prevents Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD).

¨     Automatically applies brakes to prevent collisions and overspeeding.

¨     Enforces speed restrictions and assists train operations during fog or low-visibility conditions.

¨     Provides in-cab signal information to loco pilots.

Uses an integrated network of:

¨     RFID tags along the track,

¨     onboard locomotive equipment,

¨     station-based Kavach systems,

¨     telecom towers and radio communication,

¨     Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) network.