Kavach, the indigenously-developed train collision avoidance system (TCAS), is set for countrywide implementation by taking up 4,000-5,000 km each year following the commissioning of up to 2,000 km this year in the South Central Railway (SCR) zone, said Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday.
“We will take it up in the high-density Mumbai-Delhi-Horwah route first. We were always confident of our engineers’ capabilities. With a fraction of the cost of importing similar foreign equipment, which could cost up to ₹2.5 crore a kilometre, we have our own tested safety system that can be installed at ₹40 lakh a kilometre. This is a perfect example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbar Bharat,” he told mediapersons at a railway site near Vikarabad, about 80 km from here.
TCAS, with the help of equipment on board the locomotive and at stations connected with transmission towers and RFID tags on the railway sleepers down, 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 maintainined.
The technology automatically takes over and applies sudden brakes — in case of a human error in jumping a red signal, when two trains come face to face on the same line inadvertantly, and prevents rear-end collisions too when they are on the same line. The hooter sounds by itself when a level crossing is approached and this serves as a big boon to the loco-pilots during fog conditions when visibility is low and speeds automatically shift to permissible limits during curves or on bridges, said SCR chief engineer (Signalling) Rajiv Ganguly.
Earlier, the Minister, along with a few senior officials, travelled in a special train and another loco carrying the Railway Board CEO and chairman V.K. Tripathi and SCR general manager Sanjiv Kishore raced towards each other on the same track between Gollaguda-Chitgidda stations. Kavach activated automatic braking, ensuring the two locomotives stopped 380 metres apart, thus avoiding a collision.
This was the first inspection of TCAS by the Minister and he pointed out that Kavach had cleared the highest safety integrity level rating of 4, which meant trains can move at 180 kmph now and tests are under way to take it up to 200 kmph. “It is going to give a phenomal advantage to loco-pilots and in ensuring passenger safety,” said Mr. Vaishnaw.
“We can now operate trains with more confidence providing total safety to passengers,” said loco-pilot G.H. Prasad who took part in the exercise. “This is a gift to our loco-pilots from our signalling and telecom wing,” said deputy chief engineer-TCAS Priya Agrawal.
