Ashwini Vaishnaw Announces ₹1,547 Crore Investment in Kavach for FY25 in Parliament.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced in the Lok Sabha recently that the Indian Railways has invested ₹1,547 crore in Kavach, the indigenous train collision avoidance system, up to and including FY25. He also mentioned that the proposed allocation for the current fiscal year was ₹1,112.57 crore, with funds to be allocated based on the progress of the work.

Kavach installation costs approximately ₹50 lakh per kilometer for trackside equipment and ₹80 lakh per locomotive for the installation of the system. The technology has already been deployed on 1,548 route kilometers (rkm) across the South Central and North Central Railways.

Work is currently underway to install Kavach on approximately 3,000 rkm along the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors, with 1,081 rkm of trackside equipment already completed (705 rkm on the Delhi–Mumbai section and 376 rkm on the Delhi–Howrah section). Regular trials are being conducted on these sections, Vaishnaw added.

By October 2024, the progress on Kavach included the laying of optical fibre cables over 4,960 kilometers, installation of 378 telecom towers, the deployment of Kavach at 381 stations, the fitting of Kavach in 482 locomotives, and installation of trackside equipment for 1,948 rkm.

Looking ahead, Vaishnaw outlined the next phase of Kavach’s rollout, which includes a project to equip 10,000 locomotives, for which bids for trackside works covering approximately 15,000 rkm have been invited. Of these, bids for 9,000 rkm have already been opened.

Currently, three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are approved to supply the Kavach system, and trials and approvals for additional OEMs are at various stages. Additionally, over 9,000 technicians, operators, and engineers have been trained in Kavach technology through specialized training programs offered at Indian Railways' centralized institutes, in collaboration with the Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications (IRISET).

HBL