new delhi, july 30
Indian Railways has commissioned indigenous railway safety system Kavach 4.0 on the Mathura-Kota section of high-density Delhi-Mumbai route. It is a significant step towards modernisation of railway safety systems in the country.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Railways has indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured the Kavach Automatic Train Protection System, taking inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ vision.”
“Kavach 4.0 is a technology-intensive system. It was approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in July 2024. Many developed nations took 20-30 years to develop and install train protection systems. The commissioning of Kavach 4.0 on the Kota-Mathura section has been achieved in a very short timeframe. This is a very big achievement,” he said.
Advanced Train protection systems of international standard, were not installed in the country in the last 60 years after independence. To ensure train and passenger safety, Kavach system has recently been operationalized.
Indian Railways is gearing up to commission Kavach 4.0 on various routes throughout the country within a short span of six years.
Over 30,000 people have already been trained on Kavach systems.
Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications (IRISET) has signed MOU with 17 AICTE approved Engineering colleges, institutions, universities for incorporating Kavach as part of their BTech course curriculum.
Kavach will help the loco pilots in maintaining train speed by effective brake application. Even in low visibility conditions like fog, the loco pilots will not have to look outside from the cabin for a signal. Pilots can see the information on the dashboard installed inside the cab.
Kavach is an indigenously developed train safety system. It is designed to prevent accidents by monitoring and controlling train speeds. It is designed at Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL 4). This is the highest level of safety design. Development of Kavach started in 2015. The system was extensively tested for over three years.
After technical improvements, the system was installed in South Central Railway (SCR). The first operational certificate was granted in 2018. Based on the experiences gained in SCR, an advanced version ‘Kavach 4.0’ was developed. It was approved in May 2025 for speeds up to 160 kmph. Kavach components are being manufactured indigenously.
