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Railways have utilised funds to the tune of ₹1,547 crore on Kavach—the indigenously designed train collision avoidance system— so far, including FY25, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday.
According to him, proposed allocation for the fiscal was ₹1,112.57 crore, but “requisite funds will be made available as per the progress of works”.
The cost for provision of track side including station equipment of Kavach is approximately ₹50 lakh/ km and cost for provision of Kavach equipment on locomotives is approximately ₹80 lakh / loco.
Kavach has already been deployed on 1,548 route kilometers (rkm) on South Central Railway and North Central Railway.
Work in progress
And at present, the work is in progress on Delhi– Mumbai and Delhi– Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 rkm ). About 1,081 rkm side track works have been completed on these routes(705 rkm on Delhi-Mumbai section and 376 rkm on Delhi - Howrah section).
“Regular trials are being done on these sections,” Vaishnaw added.
Progress of key items comprising Kavach system (up to October 2024) included laying of optical fibre cable across 4,960 kms, installation of 378 telecom towers, provision of Kavach at 381 stations, providing Kavach in 482 locomotives and installation of track side equipment for 1,948 rkm.
Next phase
According to the minister, the “next phase of Kavach implementation” include a project for equipping 10,000 locomotives—which has been finalised. Bids for track side works of Kavach for approximately 1,5000 rkm have been invited, out of which bids for about 9,000 rkmhave been opened.
Currently, three OEMs (original equipment maker) are approved for the supply of Kavach. “Trials and approval of more OEMs are at different stages,” he said.
Vaishnaw added, specialised training programme on Kavach are being conducted at centralized training institutes of Indian Railways. Over 9,000 technicians, operators and engineers have been trained on Kavach technology. Courses have been designed in collaboration with IRISET.
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