New Delhi, Mar 4 : To enhance passenger safety, Railway Minister Ashiwin Vaishnaw on Friday said that the 2000 km rail route in the country will be equipped with ‘Kavach’, an indigenous Rail Signaling Technology in the year 2022-23. “This technology will be rolled out on the four to five thousand kms rail track every years” he said after the Railway Minister tested the Kavach technology on Friday in a train hurtling towards another train between Gallaguda and Chittaguda, about 60 km from Secunderabad on the Hyderabad-Mumbai route. The Kavach is an indigenously developed technology meant to provide protection by preventing trains to pass the signal at Danger (Red) and avoid collision. The Railway Minister told reporters that this technology has been successfully tested for operation at a speed of 160 kmph and will now be done at a speed of 200 kmph. “In this budget 2000 km of rail route in the country would be equipped with Kavach technology and further four to five thousand km of Kavach would be implemented annually.” The Minister said that the cost of this armor developed by RDSO of Railways is 40 to 50 lakh rupees per kilometer while foreign technology is expensive by 1.5 to two crore rupees per kilometer. With the implementation of this technology, loco pilots will be able to drive more confidently. Asked how he could muster the courage to board the engine himself for such a risky test, the Railway Minister said he has full faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision and the ability of his engineers. He said that in the coming time, Indian Railways will export this technology to all the countries of the world. Vaishnav said that more than 400 Vande Bharat trains, in the coming time, will completely change the rail travel experience in India, on the tracks equipped with Kavach technology. The KAVACH is an indigenously developed ATP system by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with Indian industry and trials facilitated by South Central Railway to achieve the corporate objective of safety in train operations across Indian Railways. It is a state of the art electronic system of Safety Integrity Level – 4 standards. Kavach is meant to provide protection by preventing trains from passing the signal at Danger (Red) and avoiding collision. It activates the train braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions. In addition, it prevents collisions between two Locomotives equipped with a functional Kavach system. During the development phase, Kavach has been implemented for a length of 264 Kms covering 25 Stations across Wadi – Vikarabad – Sanathnagar and Vikarabad – Bidar sections over SCR. During the Financial Year 2020-21, Kavach has been commissioned over 321 km and 32 Stations covering Nanded, Secunderabad and Hyderabad Divisions. “By February 2022, installation at 52 locations covering 615 km have been completed. And the works are progressing at a fast pace to complete the balance 264 km within the targeted time, the ministry said. JA SHK1808