NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, APRIL 17
Having received the appreciation of the Supreme Court, the Southern Railway has on Wednesday announced that ‘Kavach’ system will be installed on major railway lines in Tamil Nadu to prevent accidents. The Kavach system, developed indigenously, is designed to automatically apply brakes in situations of overspeeding or collisions, contributing to enhanced safety on the rail network.
The Supreme Court of India, on Monday, appreciated the initiatives by Indian Railways for the implementation of ‘Kavach’, an indigenous automatic train protection system in trains.
- Kavach system set to enhance safety on major routes, says Southern Railway
- “Kavach” technology will be installed on major railway lines in Tamil Nadu to prevent accidents
- On High Density Network (HDN) – 271 RKM & High Utilised Network (HUN) – 1,945 RKM
The Supreme Court stated that the Union of India/Indian Railways have initiated multiple steps towards bettering the anti-collision system in the trains, such as the installation of a safety system, improving the quality of tracks, training and sensitization of staff, reforms in maintenance practices, and the implementation of the Kavach System.
‘Kavach’ is an indigenous automatic train protection system developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry to boost safety in train operations. It is a state-of-the-art electronic system that meets Safety Integrity Level 4 standards. KAVACH is meant to provide protection by preventing trains from passing the signal at Danger (Red) and avoiding collisions. It activates the train braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions. In addition, it prevents collisions between two locomotives equipped with a functional KAVACH system. ‘Kavach’ is one of the cheapest, Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technologies, with a probability of error of 1 in 10,000 years. Also, it opens avenues for the export of this indigenous technology to railways. The maximum portion of railway traffic is carried on Indian Railway High Density Network (HDN) and Highly Used Network (HUN) routes. To transport this traffic safely, KAVACH works are being taken up in a focused manner on a priority basis.
The High-Density Network (HDN) and Highly Used Network (HUN) routes over Southern Railway have been identified for implementation of Kavach. This indigenously developed train protection system has been planned to be commissioned in around 2,216 along a route kilometre of length, a press release said.
- On High Density Network (HDN) – 271 RKM
| Division | Section | RKM | Route |
| MAS | Chennai – Arakkonam section | 68 | HDN |
| MAS | Arakkonam – Renigunta section | 65 | HDN |
| MAS | Chennai – Gudur Section | 138 | HDN |
- High Utilised Network (HUN) – 1,945 RKM
| Division | Section | KMS | Route |
| MAS | Arakkonam – Jolarpettai | 150 | HUN |
| MAS | Dr MGR Chennai Central – Chennai Beach | 6.62 | HUN |
| MAS | Chennai Egmore – Tambaram – Chengalpattu | 60 | HUN |
| MAS | Chengalpattu – Villupuram | 102.76 | HUN |
| SA | Jolarpettai – Salem – Erode | 179.29 | HUN |
| SA | Erode – Irugur – Coimbatore – Podanur | 106.54 | HUN |
| SA | Irugur – Podanur | 10.77 | HUN |
| SA | Erode – Karur | 65.38 | HUN |
| SA | Salem – Namakkal – Karur | 85.19 | HUN |
| TPJ | Villupuram – Tiruchchirappalli | 178 | HUN |
| MDU | Tiruchchirapalli – Dindigul | 94.31 | HUN |
| MDU | Dindigul – Madurai | 65.78 | HUN |
| MDU | Madurai – Virudunagar | 43.18 | HUN |
| MDU | Virudunagar – Vanchi Maniyachi | 84.48 | HUN |
| MDU | Vanchi Maniyachi – Tirunelveli | 28.9 | HUN |
| PGT | Podanur – Palakkad – Shoranur | 95.88 | HUN |
| TVC | Shoranur – Ernakulam | 106.85 | HUN |
| TVC | Ernakulam – Kottayam – Kayankulam | 114.65 | HUN |
| TVC | Ernakulam – Alappuzha – Kayankulam | 100.34 | HUN |
| TVC | Kayankulam – Trivandrum | 105.33 | HUN |
| TVC | Trivandrum – Kanniyakumari | 86.54 | HUN |
| TVC | Tirunelveli – Nagercoil | 73.29 | HUN |
