In response to the Kanchanjungha Express tragedy, the railways will soon introduce a unified set of rules to clarify speed and safety protocols for loco pilots during signal failures in automatic signalling sections. These new guidelines are expected to be finalised within the next 10 days.

The national transporter will focus on deploying the Kavach automatic train protection (ATP) system on 5,000 kilometers of track and equipping 10,000 locomotives with the technology starting in October. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that tenders for this work will be issued within the next three months. Kavach will be installed on key rail corridors, including Mumbai-Chennai and Chennai-Kolkata.

By March 2025, Kavach will be fully implemented on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes. The railways plan to deploy up to 4,000 kilometers of the Kavach system annually. ?With this rollout, we will have Kavach installed in half of our locomotives," Vaishnaw stated.

All new trains will be equipped with Kavach 4.0, which prevents trains from exceeding safe speeds or running past signals at danger. The system can automatically control the train's speed and apply brakes if necessary. Currently, 1,465 kilometers of the railway network are equipped with Kavach.

Certified providers Medha Servo Drives, HBL Power Systems, and Kernex Microsystems are responsible for deploying the system. Vaishnaw also noted that the railways aim to complete the mapping of 8,000 stations by December and will issue a tender for the installation of related devices. While the focus remains on deploying the current version of Kavach, work is underway on the development of Kavach 6.0.

(ET)