Indian Railways to install indigenously developed "Train Collision Avoidance System" (TCAS), known as 'Kavach', on high density routes of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah sections in the first phase.
In the next phase, the railways planning to cover busy routes of Mumbai-Chennai and Howrah-Chennai for which the survey work is being carried out. The railways also proposes to install Kavach in a section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
By 2024, the railways is planning to install Kavach on all important routes, said an official.
The railways also plans to export Kavach to other countries, said the official.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget speech announced that as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat, 2,000 km of network will be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world-class technology for safety and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.
The Kavach has been indigenously developed by the Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO) and other associated research firms with a capacity of ensuring the highest degree of accuracy in preventing collision between two trains.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "Indigenously developed anti-collision technology called Kawach, (TCAS) is SIL-4(Safety Integrity Level) certified. That means there is the probability of a single error in 10,000 years in its efficient working results."
The system is capable of speed control by automatic application of brakes in case a loco pilot fails to do so. Signal aspects in the cab are useful for higher speeds, foggy weather. This will not only aid loco pilots to avoid signal passing at danger (SPAD) and overspeeding but also help in train running during dense fog, said the railways.
The Kawach system brings the train's movement to a halt automatically after it detects that the train had jumped of the Red signal or spots another train on the same railway track from the opposite side, said the official.
Kavach can also be interfaced with existing interlockings including relay-based interlockings.
Currently, the project is being implemented on a pilot basis in some sections of South Central Railway zone.
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