Concerned over accidents and collision on train tracks, the Indian Railways has worked out a three-phase Kavach – the indigenous train collision prevention and avoidance system – a roll-out plan covering over 66,000 route km (rKM) of key and high-density routes across its total network of 68,000 rKM. Installation completion deadline is 2030.
In the first phase, currently underway, bids for 14,735 rKM have been invited, while phase II, to be implemented in FY26, will see bids for 17,000 rKM. The third phase, to be implemented over FY27 and FY28, will be for 30,000 rKM, a senior Rail Ministry official told businessline. At least 10,000 locomotives, including all new Vande Bharat train sets, will come pre-installed with the anti-train collision system.
The average cost of installation of the system works out to ₹50 lakh per rKM on the track-side, while it is ₹70 lakh in case of locomotives, the official noted
In all, sanctions for installation of Kavach 4.0 has been received in 36,000 rKM, of which umbrella sanction received in FY25 is for 30,000 rKM.
The Kavach train collision avoidance system has three-to-four main components that include radio frequency identification (RFID) technology – integrated into the tracks and wireless devices; RFID readers - equipped in the driver’s cabin (locomotive); radio infrastructure – that includes towers and modems at railway stations; and cabin instrument panels that display signals and speed limits.
The protection system alerts a pilot to red signals and applies automatic brakes if necessary. It also provides an on-board display of signal aspects to enable safer operation in adverse visibility.
Review of Rollout
According to a recent review carried out by the Railways, the latest version of Kavach installation has been completed across 1,568 rKMs, while installation work is currently underway for 3,000 rKM. Bids have been invited for another 14,735 rKM.
“Bids were invited by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for installation of Kavach on 10,000 coaches and were opened in October. The financial bids are under evaluation at the moment,” the official said.
In September, Kavach 4.0 was installed and commissioned between Kota and Sawai Madhopur (in Rajasthan) on a 108-km section. Trials are carried out along 84 km of the Ahmedabad-Vadodara section too.
First-Phase Bid Details
Tenders floated for Kavach across multiple States, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are worth over ₹2,200 crore.
Tenders include various components for Kavach such as towers, optical fibre, dashboards, alongside contracting system integrators. The value of these contracts ranges from ₹100 crore to ₹340 crore, some of the documents reviewed by the paper, show.
Track-side tenders are for the Delhi–Chennai and Chennai–Mumbai routes - known as the two high-density routes that carry a bulk of the passengers, covering 3,375 rKM. Automatic block sections (ABS) are for 9,090 rKM. The remaining 5,645 rKM bids are across various other sections.
“So far bids worth 1,105 rKM have been opened. And the remaining will be evaluated this month (November),” the official added.