Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the indigenous anti-collision safety system Kavach has been fully commissioned on more than 2,000 km of the Indian Railways network.

Replying during Question Hour, the minister said Kavach is a highly complex Automatic Train Protection system comprising five major components, including the continuous laying of optical fibre cable along railway tracks and the installation of telecom towers.

He said Indian Railways has so far laid 7,129 km of optical fibre cable, installed 860 telecom towers, connected 767 stations to data centres, deployed trackside equipment along 3,413 km, and equipped 4,154 locomotives with Kavach. “Complete commissioning has crossed 2,000 km,” Vaishnaw said, adding that the pace of work has been “very fast”.

The minister also noted that around 40,000 technicians and operators have been trained, underlining that Kavach is a “totally new and very complex” safety system.

Responding to a supplementary question by Kalanidhi Veeraswamy on rail accidents, Vaishnaw said consequential accidents have declined by nearly 90 per cent, falling from 135 in 2014 to 11 at present.

On station redevelopment, the minister said upgrading railway stations without disrupting train services is a complex task, but suspending rail operations is not a feasible option in India. He pointed out that several countries halt rail services for three to four years during station redevelopment, which is impractical in India, where around 75 million passengers travel by train.

Vaishnaw said stations are being modernised under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, which follows a long-term, phased redevelopment approach based on master plans. So far, 1,337 stations have been identified under the scheme, and redevelopment work at 155 stations has already been completed, according to an official statement issued earlier this month.