Maligaon, November 15 (MExN): Indian Railways is speeding up to deploy advanced Kavach 4.0 - automatic train protection system across 10,000 locomotives and over 14,375Route Kilometres (RKM) of tracks across the country.
Bids for the installation of the Kavach system have already been invited. Out of the total 14,735 RKM, bids have been opened for the installation on 1,105 RKM, with the remaining bids set to be opened by end of November 2024.
Additionally, Indian Railways has invited tenders for the installation of Kavach systems on 10,000 locomotives, with the financial bids currently under evaluation. Also, all the locomotives where lower versions of Kavach were installed will be replaced with the upgraded Kavach 4.0.
Over NF Railway approximately 1966 RKM of length from Malda Town to Dibrugarh have been identified for implementation of Kavach. In 2024-25, Indian Railways has sanctioned the work of installation of the Kavach system on over 30,000 RKM. Out of this, bids for 14,375 have been invited. Indian Railways has also planned to invite bids for an additional 17,000 RKM in 2025-26 and up to 30,000 RKM planned for 2026-28.
The advanced Kavach 4.0 was approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation in July 2024. After successful trial, implementation of Kavach 4.0 was done at a stretch of 108 km section between Kota and Sawai Madhopur in the West Central Railway.
Trials are also underway on the 84 km Ahmedabad-Vadodara section in the Western Railway.To enhance safety and efficiency in train operations, Indian Railway is planning for a faster rollout of Kavach on almost all the major routes of its network by 2030. This was stated in a press release issued by Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer, NFR.
