After the recent train accident in West Bengal, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has issued instructions to the railway officials to install the advanced version of Kavach in mission mode. Vaishnav, along with senior railway officials at Rail Bhavan on Monday, evaluated the development of the advanced automatic train protection system (ATP) developed under the name of Kavach 4.0. According to the news of Financial Express, Kavach 3.2 is currently being deployed on designated high-density routes. It is believed that the Railway Ministry has now become active regarding train accidents. More decisions can be taken in this direction in the coming days.
Kavach 4.0 Progress Review
According to the report, railway officials said that Vaishnav reviewed the progress of Kavach 4.0 on June 22. Three manufacturers of Kavach who are in the advanced phase of testing version 4.0 presented their progress report to the minister. After reviewing the installation of Kavach and the Railway Safety Minister, Vaishnav directed that the installation of Kavach be implemented systematically and speedily once it is operational. The Railway Ministry emphasizes that the development of Kavach represents a significant advance in railway safety.
Kavach to miss SIL4 certification in 2019
Vaishnav had on several occasions emphasised that while most major global railway systems adopted ATP technology in the 1980s, Indian Railways began this journey with the approval of the first version of the Train Collision Avoidance System in 2016. After rigorous trials and tests, this safety system achieved SIL4 certification in 2019, which is the highest level of safety certification globally.
Efforts to install it began in the year 2022
Version 3.2 of the Kavach system received system certification and was adopted in 2021. From the last quarter of 2022, efforts began to install this version on high-density routes such as Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah. Experts involved in the installation of the automatic train protection system emphasize that its functionality depends on five subsystems. Three subsystems—optical fiber network, towers with radio equipment and RFID tags—have been installed along the railway tracks, while data centers have been set up at railway stations and integrated into the signaling system.
Armor installation in mission mode
The news indicates that after the development and certification of Kavach version 4.0, the railways will accelerate its installation in a mission-oriented approach. A senior railway official said that more manufacturers are developing this system which are in various stages of development. Being a safety system, Kavach needs careful testing on international standards before it can be certified for approval.
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