Parliamentary panel praises indigenously developed train collision avoidance system 'Kavach' for preventing train accidents

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, December 10

Indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System ‘KAVACH’ has been praised by the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture for its success in preventing train accidents.

The 323rd report of the committee presented to Rajya sabha on Thursday also lauded the Railway Board for the reduction of “consequential train accidents” in the country.

“KAVACH would go a long way in reducing accidents,” noted the report and recommended introduction of ‘KAVACH’ through all the routes of Indian Railways in a phase-wise manner.

“In first phase, all the routes where there are regular cases of accidents should be considered and ‘KAVACH’ should be installed expeditiously,” the report suggested.

The Committee was informed that the number of “consequential train accidents” declined from 141 in 2010-11 to 55 in 2019-20 and further to 35 in 2021-22. In the current financial year 2022-23 (up to March 31, 2022), three consequential train accidents have taken place.

“Consequential Train Accidents” refers to train accidents having serious repercussion in terms of loss of human life, human injury and loss to railway property or interruption to rail traffic. Such accidents happen due to collisions, derailments, level crossing accident, etc.

The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Ministry of Railways along with three Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have developed India’s own Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System, “KAVACH”.

Fencing costing Rs 4,677 crore proposed to be erected along tracks to save cattle

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said fencing had been proposed all along the track for sections identified for raising of train speed to 160 kmph and at vulnerable locations for other sections to avoid cattle coming under running trains. New Delhi-Mumbai (including Vadodara-Ahmedabad) and New Delhi-Howrah (including Kanpur-Lucknow) routes have been identified for fencing all along the track along with vulnerable locations on other routes of Indian Railways, he said. Total proposed expenditure to be incurred for this work is Rs 4,677 crore, Vaishnaw said while answering an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha.