KAVACH SYSTEM

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Context

• The death of over 288 passengers in the ghastly train accident on June 2 at Bahanaga Bazaar railway station in the Balasore district of Odisha has brought into sharp focus the safety mechanisms needed to prevent such tragedies.

What is Kavach?

• The KAVACH is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry.
• The trials were facilitated by the South Central Railway to achieve safety in train operations across Indian Railways.
• It is a state-of-the-art electronic system with Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4) standards.
• It is meant to provide protection by preventing trains to pass the signal at Red (which marks danger) and avoid collision.
• It activates the train’s braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per speed restrictions.
• In addition, it prevents the collision between two locomotives equipped with functional Kavach systems.
• The system also relays SoS messages during emergency situations.
• An added feature is the centralised live monitoring of train movements through the Network Monitor System.
• ‘Kavach’ is one of the cheapest, SIL-4 certified technologies where the probability of error is 1 in 10,000 years.

How does Kavach work on Railway Systems?

• The Traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), with the help of equipment on board the locomotive and transmission towers at stations connected with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, helps in two-way communication between the station master and loco-pilot to convey any emergency message.
• The instrument panel inside the cabin helps the loco-pilot know about the signal in advance without visual sighting, and the permissible speeds to be maintained.
• If a red signal is jumped and two trains come face to face on the same line, the technology automatically takes over and applies sudden brakes.
• Additionally, the hooter activates by itself when approaching a level crossing which serves as a big boon to loco-pilots during fog conditions when visibility is low.

The recent accident

• Both the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express and the Yeshwanthpur-Howrah Express were not fitted with KAVACH-TACS.
• The Kavach system project is yet to be implemented on the Howrah-Kharagpur-Chennai line.

What is the Kavach deployment strategy?

• Kavach implementation is being taken up in a focused manner by the Railway Board.
• The first priorities are the High-Density Routes and the New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah Sections, as they have higher chances of accidents because the trains run closer to each other.
• The second priority lines are the Highly Used Networks, the third ones are other Passenger High-Density Routes and the final priority is of course to cover all other routes.

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