There will not be a single train accident after six years! Kavach will be installed in the entire rail network.
Railways is working to install Kavach-4 in 68 locomotive maintenance workshops in the country. Now Kavach 4 is being installed in a locomotive in just 22 hours.
The Ministry of Railways is continuously taking steps to prevent accidents in trains. Under this, the Kavach system is being installed in 200 locomotives every day. If this work continues at this pace, then Kavach will be installed in the rail network of the entire country in the next six years. This claim was made by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav. He said that very soon Indian Railways will touch the new record of zero train accidents and zero train derailment.
The Railway Minister said that the work of installing the recently launched Kavach-4 on locomotives (rail engines) and tracks is being done on priority. He claimed that Kavach will be installed in the rail network of the entire country during the next six years.
Work going on in 68 workshops
Top officials of the Railway Ministry said that the Railways is installing Kavach-4 in 68 locomotive maintenance workshops of the country. Earlier, it used to take about 15 days to install Kavach in a locomotive, which was reduced to six days. Now Kavach 4 is being installed in a locomotive in just 22 hours. Every workshop has the capacity to install Kavach in about 10 to 12 locomotives daily. However, it depends on the conditions as to how many locomotives can be fitted with Kavach in a workshop in a day.
Kavach-4 will be installed in every locomotive coming for maintenance.
After strengthening the groundwork and technical facilities, the Railway Ministry has ordered that Kavach-4 should also be installed in any electrified locomotive that comes to the loco workshop for maintenance for more than 24 hours.
This is the target for the next two years.
According to the Railway Ministry, the Railways has a total of 18 thousand electrified locomotives. The target has been set to install Kavach in 10 thousand locomotives in the next two years, while in the next four years Kavach 4 is to be installed in all electrified locomotives and on electrified rail tracks across the country.
This much is spent on one locomotive
In order to install Kavach on such a large scale, first nine thousand railway personnel were trained. At present, a tender has been given to install Kavach on a total of 15 thousand kilometers of rail track. So far, Kavach has been installed on one thousand kilometers of railway track. These include Mumbai to Baroda and Delhi to Palwal routes. Let us tell you that installing Kavach in a locomotive costs Rs 80 lakh, installing Kavach on per kilometer of railway track costs Rs 60 lakh.
How does Kavach work?
It is necessary to install Kavach system on both rail tracks and engines. When a Kavach equipped train passes through the Kavach track, the speed and location of the train etc. is known through the sensor. Similarly, the data of the train coming from the front also comes into the system. Considering the speed of both the trains and the short distance, the Kavach system automatically stops both the trains. At present, the work of installing Kavach on the engine (locos) and tracks is going on. After improving the first three versions of Kavach, the Railways launched Kavach-4 on 16 July 2024. Now Kavach-4 is being installed at all places.