The anti-collision test conducted by the Indian Railways to check the indigenous developed system to avoid rail accidents is "successful", Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who oversaw the test, said today. The indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, known as Kavach, was designed to help the Railways achieve the goal of "zero accidents".
'Kavach' automatically stopped the train before 380 metres of other Locomotive at the front, he said.
The minister also shared a video from inside a train that was part of anti-collision test conducted by the Indian Railways in Secunderabad.
The test involved two trains - one with the railway minister on board and the other with the Chairman of the Railway Board - hurtle towards each other at full speed. Both the trains stopped 380 metres apart.
'Kavach', which literally means armour, is being promoted by the Railways as the world's cheapest automatic train collision protection system.
Through 'Kavach', trains will stop on their own when digital system notices any manual error like "jumping" of the red signal or any other malfunction, senior officials said.
Once implemented, it will cost ₹ 50 lakh per kilometre to operate compared to about ₹ 2 crore worldwide, they said.
"It works on the principle of continuous update of movement by using high frequency radio communication. It also conforms to SIL-4 (Safety Integrity Level - 4) which is the highest level of safety certification.
"RFID tags are provided on the tracks and at station yard for each track and signals for track identification, location of trains and identification of train direction. The 'On Board Display of Signal Aspect' (OBDSA) is to help loco pilots check signals on board consoles even when the visibility is low," an official said.
Once the system is activated, all trains within a 5-km range will halt to provide protection for trains on adjacent tracks.
Currently, loco-pilots or assistant loco-pilots usually crane their necks out of the window to look out for caution signs and signals, said officials.
The first field trials on the passenger trains were started in February 2016 and based on the experience gained, initials specifications of the Kavach were finalised in May 2017.
Announced in the 2022 union Budget as a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, 2,000 km of rail network is planned to be brought under the indigenous world-class technology 'Kavach', for safety and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.
So far, Kavach has been deployed on over 1098 route km and 65 locos in on-going projects of South Central Railway.
With additional inputs from PTI
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