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Indian Railways Clears ₹1,364 Crore for Kavach Signalling across Multiple Zones

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Indian Railways has approved projects worth ₹1,364.45 crore to strengthen safety, signalling and communication systems across multiple zones. The works include Kavach deployment on locomotives, optical fibre expansion and signalling upgrades. The approvals, part of the 2024–25 works programme, aim to improve operational safety and network efficiency.

What is Kavach

Kavach is an indigenous automatic train protection (ATP) system developed by Indian Railways to prevent train collisions and improve safety on the rail network. It is like an automatic braking and warning system that takes control if something goes wrong.

How Kavach works:

Kavach acts like a real-time safety shield for trains.

  • It uses radio communication and GPS to continuously track trains
  • It connects locomotives, tracks, and control centers
  • It constantly compares train speed and position with safe limits

 If a driver makes a mistake, Kavach automatically applies brakes to avoid accidents.

Where It Is Installed

Kavach works through a combination of systems:

  • Onboard equipment in locomotives
  • Trackside devices along railway lines
  • Station systems integrated with signalling
  • Central control systems monitoring operations

India’s national rail network is moving deeper into a technology-led safety upgrade, with a fresh round of approvals targeting both trains and trackside systems.

Indian Railways has sanctioned projects worth ₹1,364.45 crore covering locomotive safety equipment, communication backbone expansion and signalling modernisation across several key zones. The approvals are part of a broader capital programme focused on reducing risk, improving reliability and preparing the network for higher traffic density.

Kavach deployment on locomotives in Southern Railway

A key component of the package is the rollout of Kavach, the indigenous train collision avoidance system, across locomotives in Southern Railway.

The transporter has approved ₹208.81 crore for installing onboard Kavach equipment on 232 locomotives. The work falls under a larger umbrella programme titled “Provision of Kavach with communication backbone of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) on balance routes of Indian Railways (Umbrella Work 2024–25),” which carries an overall outlay of ₹27,693 crore.

Within this, Southern Railway has been allocated ₹2,950 crore. The current phase focuses on equipping locomotives with Kavach Version 4.0, which integrates real-time signalling inputs and automatic braking systems to prevent collisions.

Kavach has been positioned as a central pillar of railway safety strategy, especially on high-density routes where traffic frequency increases the risk of human error.

Optical fibre expansion strengthens communication backbone

Parallel investments are being made to upgrade the communication systems that support modern signalling and safety technologies.

In Northern Railway, three projects worth ₹400.86 crore have been approved to expand the optical fibre cable network. These works fall under a separate umbrella programme for strengthening and replacing communication backbone infrastructure, with a total approved cost of ₹4,871 crore.

A sub-allocation of ₹871 crore has been earmarked for the zone.

The approved works include installation of 2×48 fibre cables across 926.05 route kilometres in Ambala Division, 1,204 route kilometres in Delhi Division along with station-level OFC rooms, and 1,074 route kilometres in Lucknow Division.

The upgrades are designed to improve bandwidth, reliability and redundancy in communication systems, which are critical for both signalling operations and Kavach deployment.

OFC network expansion in North Central Railway

Further expansion of the fibre network is planned in North Central Railway, where ₹176.77 crore has been approved for laying 2×48 fibre OFC cables across 2,196 route kilometres.

The work is split across major divisions, including 1,016 kilometres in Prayagraj, 709 kilometres in Jhansi and 471 kilometres in Agra.

This project is part of the same communication backbone programme and is supported by a ₹200 crore sub-allocation for the zone.

Officials say the expansion will support high-density routes where real-time communication between trains and control systems is essential for safe operations.

Electronic interlocking upgrades in South Central Railway

Signalling systems are also being upgraded through a shift from older panel interlocking systems to electronic interlocking.

In South Central Railway, projects worth ₹578.02 crore have been approved to replace panel interlocking at 49 stations.

The works include upgrades at 35 stations in Guntakal Division and 14 stations in Nanded Division, both located on high-density and highly utilised routes.

These projects fall under an umbrella programme for electronic interlocking, which has an overall cost of ₹15,164 crore.

Electronic interlocking systems reduce manual intervention and improve the precision and reliability of train routing decisions. They are also better suited for integration with automated safety systems such as Kavach.

Network-wide push toward safer, more efficient operations

The latest approvals reflect a layered approach to railway modernisation, combining onboard safety systems, trackside communication upgrades and signalling improvements.

Each component supports the others. Kavach relies on robust communication networks, while modern signalling systems ensure accurate data flow and control.

Indian Railways has been scaling up these technologies as part of its long-term strategy to handle increasing passenger and freight demand without compromising safety.

The ₹1,364 crore package represents a targeted investment across zones, but it also fits into a much larger national effort to upgrade infrastructure, reduce accidents and improve operational efficiency.

As these systems are deployed, the network is expected to move closer to a model where technology plays a central role in preventing errors and managing traffic at scale.

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Indian Railways records best ever cargo loading in August’22

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Indian Railways has recorded best ever August Monthly freight loading of 119.32 MT in August’22. The incremental loading in the month of August has been 8.69 MT i.e. a growth of 7.86 % over the previous best August figures achieved in 2021. With this, Indian Railways has had 24 straight months of best ever monthly freight loading.

IR has achieved an incremental loading of 9.2 MT in Coal, followed by 0.71 MT in Fertilizer, 0.68 MT in Balance other goods and 0.62 MT Containers. Increase in automobile loading has been another highlight of Freight Business in FY 2022-23 and 2206 rakes have been loaded in FY 2022-23 till August as compared to 1314 rakes during the same period of last year i.e. a growth of 68%.

The cumulative freight loading from 1st April’2022 to 31st August ’2022 has been 620.87 MT as against 562.75 MT achieved in 2021-22 i.e. an incremental loading of 58.11 MT, with a growth of 10.32 % over same period last year.

The freight NTKMs (Net tonne kilometers) have increased from 63 Billion in August ’21 to 73 Billion in August’22 registering a growth of 16 %. The cumulative NTKMs in the first five months have also grown by 18.29 %.

 

Railways/Photo:en.wikipedia.org

The sustained efforts of Indian Railways to increase supply of Coal to Power houses, in close coordination with Ministry of Power and Coal, have been one of the key features of the freight performance in the month of August. The loading of Coal (both domestic and imported) to Power Houses has increased by 10.46 MT in August with 44.64 MT Coal being moved to Power houses as against 34.18 MT last year, i.e. a growth of 31%. Cumulatively, in the first five months of the year, IR has loaded more than 58.41 MT extra coal to Power Houses as compared to same period of last year, with a growth of more than 32%.

The commodity wise growth number show that IR has achieved impressive growth in almost all commodity segments with the following growth rates :

Indian Railways comes to the rescue of Bangalore traffic jams

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In view of increasing bumper-to-bumper slow-moving Bangalore traffic during the peak hours, Indian Railways has come out with a plan to run suburban trains between Bengaluru-Whitefield section, in addition to 26 suburban trains introduced elsewhere in the city in the last one year.

The project, involving Rs 492.87 crore, has been approved for construction. The 25 km stretch will connect six stations–Bengaluru Cantonment, Bengaluru East, Baiyyapannahalli, Krishnarajapuram, Hoodi and Whitefield, to benefit an estimated 62,000 daily commuters in this section, said the railway ministry in a statement.

To be completed by 2021, the project will help to ease the traffic in the burgeoning IT hub area of whitefield. Currently, 146 trains are running from Bengaluru and 94 trains from Yesvantpur stations, and out of them 122 are essentially suburban trains catering the commuters in the vicinity of Bengaluru.

The Railways said four additional suburban services between KSR Bengaluru-Baiyyappanahalli and Baiyappanahalli-Bengaluru have been introduced.

Indian Railways has been on a fast track these days introducing fast and online tendering system for infrastructure and timely settlement of tenders.

"It is once again reiterated that all tenders should be finalised within the normal validity period," wrote the Railway Board to all its production units as well as other departments recently, urging to follow a fixed timeline for execution of every contract.

High Capacity Parcel Vans in Indian Railways

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To meet the demand of full vehicle load perishable traffic, Indian Railways has developed High Capacity Parcel Vans (VPs) with a capacity of 23 Tonnes which are attached to passenger carrying trains subject to availability of room in train and operational feasibility. To facilitate transportation of milk through Rail, specially designed High Capacity Milk Tankers having capacity of 44.66 KL are run as Special trains. At present 3 Milk tanker trains are being run of which 2 trains are run by Gujarat Corporative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMFL) from Palanpur to Bhim Sen and other by Mother Dairy from Daund to Baraut.

In addition to this, Indian Railways also run special parcel train consisting of High Capacity Parcel Vans for transportation of fruits in bulk like Mango, Banana, Orange etc. on demand, on a fixed path between specific origin-destination stations. Railways supply rakes for transportation of fruits on indent basis.

For transportation of horticulture produce in container, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has procured 98 Ventilated Isolated Containers specially designed for movement of fruits and vegetables.

Indian Railways Pondering ‘Subsidy’ Give Up Scheme on Tickets

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Indian Railways wants to emulate the example of “Give it Up” campaign that was behind 1 crore people giving up their subsidized gas connections before it was made mandatory for all those above the income level of Rs.10 lakhs per annum.

A senior railway official said the ministry is pondering the possibility of similar appeal that can dissuade those who can afford to forfeit claim for subsidy in travel tickets.

“Passengers will have the option to forgo either 100 per cent of the subsidy or 50 per cent or to avail of the subsidy. It will be a voluntary decision,” said the official.

The idea surfaced when a passenger Krishen Kher returned Rs.950 subsidy for his trip sending a cheque to online reservation entity IRCTC. It hit upon them that many people may come forward to renounce any subsidy and save the differential amount of the actual fare, which comes to 57 per cent of each ticket and 40% on suburban rail tickets.

The annual subsidy comes to around Rs.30,000 crore for the Railways. “We expect people who are well off to forgo the subsidy, as details of this are already printed on tickets,” said the official.

The ministry has recently roped in the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy on undertaking efforts to reduce its subsidy burden, following the 2015 Bibek Debroy committee report to go corporate way. In 2016-17 Indian Railways had posted its worst ever operating ratio in 16 years at 96.9 per cent.

Another international consultancy has been asked to design a performance index to measure the country’s largest transportation entity and public sector undertaking (PSU) instead of operating ratio.

If performance comes into reckoning, then railways should increase their frequency of trains on profitable routes and limit them on unprofitable routes. Secondly, the government officials and representatives will have to forfeit their subsidized ticket fares for higher class travel.

Many committees had commissions have recommended Indian Railways to go the corporate way but the Indian government is unable to implement them in view of backlash and huge ticket-less travel reported in states such as Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.