Kanchanjunga Express train accident: All eyes on quick deployment of Kavach system across the network

Kanchamjunga train accident: The collision between a goods train and Kanchanjunga Express in West Bengal on Monday, leaving at least nine dead, has renewed the call for expediting the deployment of Kavach. The indigenously-developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system is, so far, operational in just 2 per cent of the railways network and 6,000 km has been tendered and is in process. The system is currently deployed on 1,465 km and 139 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on the South Central Railway. The tendering process for another 10,000 km is underway.
 
Presently, Kavach contracts have been awarded for Delhi-Mumbai (including Ahmedabad-Vadodara section) & Delhi-Howrah (including Lucknow—Kanpur section) corridors approximately covering 3,000 km under Eastern Railway, East Central Railway, North Central Railway, Northern Railway, West Central Railway and Western Railway.
 
Sudhanshu Mani, former General Manager of Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, says there is no time to play the blame game.

“The Kanchanjunga Express accident underscores the need for a much faster rollout of Kavach, which would have surely prevented this tragedy. It is disappointing that Indian railways is trying to get away with lame excuses like industry capacity (for Kavach production),” he says.

Presently, three Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)--HBL PowerSystems, Kernex, and Medha--are approved for Kavach. Efforts are being made to develop more OEMs to enhance the capacity and to scale up the implementation of Kavach.
 
New OEMs are expected to be onboarded for the upcoming tenders as the railways plans to expedite the implementation of Kavach. The plan is to deploy Kavach on the entire 70,000-kilometer route to ensure the safety of passengers.  

Experts also point at organisational weakness at the ground level that needs to be fixed to prevent such incidents.
“There has been a steep fall in the induction of engineers in the Railways in the last few years and that is now being reflected in the operational side of the railways. Implementation of Kavach and some other infra projects have been delayed and these need to be fixed,” says Lalit Chandra Trivedi, former Indian Railways General Manager.

There has been a growing demand to increase the Kavach coverage on track but according to the railways, the system involves complexities and it has to be customised for every train.

“For example, a 5000-tonne goods train would need a 1-1,500 km distance to come to a halt while for MEMU (mainline electric multiple unit), it will be 300-500 km. So, the system has to be devised accordingly,” said a top railway ministry official.
 
The system involves the laying of optical fiber cable, installation of telecom towers, equipment at stations, equipment in locomotive and installation of trackside equipment. Kavach aids the loco pilot in trains running within specified speed limits by automatic application of brakes in case the loco pilot fails to do so and also help the train safely run during inclement weather.

Other benefits of ‘Kavach’ include the controlling speed of trains by automatic application of brakes on the approach of turnouts, repeating of signal aspects in the cab, which is useful for higher speeds and foggy weather, and auto whistling at level crossing gates.

The first field trials on the passenger trains were started in February 2016. Based on the experience so gained and the Independent Safety Assessment of the system by a 3rd party Independent Safety Assessor, three firms were approved in 2018-19, for the supply of Kavach. Subsequently, Kavach was adopted as a National ATP system in July 2020.