Kavach trial: Train carrying railway minister stops on its own 50 metres before red signal
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday reviewed a trial of an Automatic Train Protection System called 'Kavach' between Sawai Madhopur and Indargarh railway stations in West Central Railway Zone.
Vaishnaw travelled in the engine of a Kavach-fitted train, which, while speeding at 130 kmph, stopped 50 metres before red signal on its own without any manual interference with the braking function by the loco pilot.
According to railway officials present during the trial, Kavach was tested for seven emergency situations and it worked as expected in all of them.
A railway official said, "The train was running at 130 kmph and the moment it entered a section where there was a permanent speed restriction of 120 kmph, the Kavach brought down its speed to 120 kmph and then after crossing it regained the 130 kmph speed."
In another test case, when the train entered a loop line where its speed was supposed to be 30 kmph, the Kavach gradually decreased its speed from 130 kmph to 30 kmph before entering the loop line.
"During the trial, a station master sent a message of some sort of abnormalities in train running and Kavach again automatically applied the brake and stopped the train," the official said.
"At one stage when the driver failed to sound whistle at a level crossing, the safety system automatically activated and applied the whistle," he added.
After the trial, which went on for about half an hour, Vaishnaw said that in another five to six years, the latest version of Kavach will be installed across all rail network in the country.
The Kavach system, also known as an Automatic Train Protection System, has been developed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), and it can apply brakes automatically in case of an emergency when a train driver fails to act in time.
The Railway Ministry has been working on this project for the last eight years.
Vaishnaw said that work is under way to operationalise Kavach system on the 3,000-km Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata routes and very soon the installation work on another 6,000 km will be started soon.
Vaishnaw said the Kavach 4.0 was approved by the RDSO on July 17, which will now help in large-scale installation.
