Railway Ministry Allocates Rs 1,112.57 Crore For Kavach Safety System In 2024-25

The Indian Railways plans to allocate a large part of its budget to improve train safety and install the Kavach automatic train-protection system. This announcement was made by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on July 23, 2024, during his comments on the Union Budget for 2024-25.

On July 24, 2024, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw provided a written response in the Lok Sabha to questions from DMK MPs Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and Rani Srikumar. They had asked about the details of the funds allocated and used for installing the Kavach system in the country. He said, “The funds utilised on Kavach works so far is Rs 1,216.77 cr. The allocation of funds during the year 2024-25 is Rs 1,112.57 cr.”

In the FY 2024-25 budget, a notable outlay of ₹ 3,011 Cr. has been allocated to Kerala for the development of Rail infra in the region: Hon'ble MR Shri @AshwiniVaishnaw#Budget2024#BudgetForViksitBharat#UnionBudget2024pic.twitter.com/RuNrTM6JmF

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) July 24, 2024

The Budget for 2024-25 released on July 23, 2024, does not show the government's promised focus on rail safety, even after several rail accidents last year. It also doesn't address the problems of congestion and the need for comfortable travel that have been troubling the railways for a while.

Railway Budget 2024-25

The Budget for 2024-25 has set aside Rs 2,55,393 crore for the Ministry of Railways, which is Rs 14,126 crore (5.8%) more than last year's allocation. Out of this increased amount, Rs 12,362 crore is specifically for safety-related activities. After presenting the budget on Tuesday, Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that Rs 1.08 lakh crore of the railway budget will be spent on safety measures. These safety measures include improving signalling systems, building flyovers replacing old tracks, and installing the Kavach system.

Kavach Safety System In 2024-25

The Railway Minister mentioned that the latest version, Kavach 4.0, has recently been approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation, allowing for its quick implementation. Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that they have made significant progress, including laying over 4,275 km of optical fibre cables and installing other components like telecom towers, track RFID devices, station Kavach, and loco Kavach.

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What Is The Railway Kavach System?

Creating Safety & Security Envelope around Trains!

KAVACH, an Automatic Train Protection System stops the train automatically, if another train approaches. The seamless functioning of this system will effectively enhance safety and efficiency.#BharatKaKavachpic.twitter.com/UooZJjh56d

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) March 4, 2022

According to the North Central Railway, “RDSO has developed KAVACH, an Indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system which has Cab Signalling features-useful for high speeds as well as foggy weather. 

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Salient Features of KAVACH: 

i) Prevention of Over speed: Section Speed, Train Speed, Permanent Speed Restriction (PSR). 

ii) Protection of Roll back and Reverse movements. 

iii) Save Our Souls (SOS) Messages. 

iv) Cab-Signalling, Loop Line Speed Control.

v) Prevention of SPAD.

vi) Centralised live monitoring of Train movements in the Networking Management System (NMS).”

The system is basically designed to provide a comprehensive safety net for train operations, significantly reducing the risk of collisions, signal passing at danger (SPAD), and over-speeding.

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