New Delhi, Dec 5 Indian Railways has commissioned Kavach 4.0 on 738 route km across key high-density corridors, the Parliament was informed on Friday.
The upgraded Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system is now operational on the Palwal–Mathura–Nagda stretch (633 route km) along the Delhi–Mumbai route and the Howrah–Bardhaman section (105 route km) on the Delhi–Howrah route, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha, in a written reply to a question.
Trackside implementation has also been taken up on 15,512 route km, covering the entire Golden Quadrilateral, the Golden Diagonal, the High Density Network, and other identified sections.
According to the ministry, Indian Railways has trained more than 40,000 technicians, operators and engineers, including 30,000 loco pilots and assistant loco pilots, through specialised programmes designed with IRISET.
The system costs about Rs 50 lakh per kilometre for trackside installation and Rs 80 lakh per locomotive. As of October this year, Rs 2,354.36 crore has been spent on Kavach works, with an allocation of Rs 1,673.19 crore for 2025–26.
Kavach, India’s indigenously developed SIL-4 certified ATP system, automatically applies brakes if a Loco Pilot fails to act and ensures safer operations even in adverse weather.
Field trials for the same began in 2016, and after successive improvements and safety assessments, the system was adopted as the national ATP in July 2020.
Following the trials, version 4.0, approved by the Research, Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) in July 2024, brings higher location accuracy, improved yard signal information, OFC-based station interface and direct integration with electronic interlocking systems, enabling large-scale deployment across the network.
Implementation involves installation of station units, RFID tags, telecom towers, optical fibre cable and equipping locomotives with onboard Kavach systems.
"Following the success of Version 3.2 on 1,465 route km of South Central Railway, further refinements led to Version 4.0, which is now being rolled out across the remaining portions of the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors," Vaishnaw said.
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