Indian Railways has missed its second deadline to install the indigenous automatic train protection system, Kavach, on the high-density New Delhi–Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah corridors, with officials now aiming to operationalise the safety system by 2026.
The Railway Ministry had earlier committed to completing the installation by March 2025, before extending the deadline to December 2025. That timeline has now slipped, officials confirmed, though they expressed confidence that the system would be fully functional next year.
Kavach, an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, assists loco pilots by automatically applying brakes when speed limits are breached or signals are ignored, thereby reducing the risk of human error.
According to officials, around 25 per cent of the work on the two corridors has already been commissioned and is in ready-to-use condition, while the bulk of the remaining infrastructure has been physically installed. “We are doing our level best to operationalise Kavach on the Mumbai–Delhi and Delhi–Kolkata routes, hoping it will be achieved in 2026,” an official said.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw provided an update in the Lok Sabha on December 17 in response to a question from Congress MP Mallu Ravi. He said Kavach Version 4.0 had been successfully commissioned on 738 route kilometres, including the Palwal–Mathura–Nagda section of the Delhi–Mumbai corridor and the Howrah–Bardhaman section of the Delhi–Howrah route.
Also read: Kavach on Mumbai-Delhi-Kolkata route by March 2025: Vaishnaw
Vaishnaw added that implementation was under way on the remaining sections of both corridors. As part of the rollout, optical fibre cable has been laid along 7,129 kilometres, around 800 telecom towers have been installed, and Station Kavach systems have been set up at 860 stations. Track-side equipment has been deployed on 5,672 route kilometres, while 4,154 locomotives have already been fitted with the system.
Kavach was first trialled on passenger trains in February 2016 and was formally adopted as India’s national ATP system in July 2020. The Railways said experience gained from earlier versions, including Kavach 3.2, helped refine the latest 4.0 version, which was launched in July 2024.
The ministry has also taken up track-side Kavach implementation across 15,512 route kilometres covering the Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and other high-density network sections. Bids have been invited to equip an additional 9,069 locomotives with Kavach 4.0.
Officials, however, cited capacity constraints as a key challenge. Initially, only three firms were authorised to install Kavach. While the number has now crossed five, Railways estimates it needs more than 50 approved original equipment manufacturers to speed up installation across its 78,000-km broad-gauge network.
Experts have repeatedly stressed that with rising train density, advanced safety systems such as Kavach are critical to minimising risks arising from human error and ensuring safer railway operations.
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