Kavach System
Context:
- The horrifying train disaster that occurred on June 2 at Bahanaga Bazaar railway station in the Balasore district of Odisha claimed the lives of over 288 passengers, putting a spotlight on the safety measures required to stop such tragedies.
About Kavach System:
- The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and the Indian industry collaborated to develop the KAVACH, an indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system.
- The South Central Railway organised the trials to increase safety in train operations on all Indian Railways. Modern electronic system that complies with Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4) criteria. One of the least expensive technologies, “Kavach,” has an error probability of 1 in 10,000 years.
- By prohibiting trains from passing the signal at Red, which denotes danger, and avoiding collision, it is intended to provide protection. If the driver doesn’t maintain control of the train within the speed limits, it automatically engages the train’s braking system. The collision between two locomotives with operable Kavach systems is also avoided.
- Additionally, the system relays SoS communications in emergency circumstances. The Network Monitor System’s centralised live train movement monitoring is an additional function.
How do Kavach’s railway systems operate?
- The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) assists in two-way communication between the station master and loco-pilot to deliver any emergency message with the aid of technology on board the locomotive and transmission towers at stations connected with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags.
- The loco-pilot is assisted by the instrument panel inside the cabin in knowing the signal ahead of time without visual sighting as well as the permitted speeds to be maintained.
- The technology takes control and applies abrupt brakes if a red signal is skipped and two trains collide on the same track. Additionally, the hooter sounds on its own when a level crossing is approaching, which is a huge help to loco-pilots in foggy weather when vision is poor.
Causes of the mishap and Kavach deployment’s scope:
- The Yeshwanthpur-Howrah Express and the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express were both devoid of KAVACH-TACS. However, Jaya Varma Sinha, a member of the Railway Board’s Operation and Business Development, argued that because the train was moving at a high speed, the reaction time and distance were very short.
- The South Central Railway (SCR) Zone is a leader in the KAVACH – (TACS) implementation. Till March of this year, 77 locomotives and 135 stations had the Kavach system deployed over 1,465 km in the SCR boundaries. The ‘Centre of Excellence’ for Kavach is additionally housed at the Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering & Telecommunications (IRISET), which has its headquarters in Secunderabad. The Railway Board has given IRISET the task of educating the in-service railway workers on Kavach. The Kavach lab of the Institute runs year-round training activities.
- In order to support the Minister of Railways, the Railway Board was established in 1905 as the principal administrative and executive body.
- It now has a Chairman and 4 members who are responsible for infrastructure, operations and business development, rolling stock, and finance following a reform in 2019.
- Sectoral experts from the disciplines of industry, finance, economics, and management are also represented on the board.
How to improve rail safety:
- The Railway Board has taken a concentrated approach to implementing Kavach. As a result of the closer spacing between the trains, the High Density Routes, New Delhi-Mumbai, and New Delhi-Howrah Sections are given priority over all other routes.
- The Highly Used Networks are the second priority lines, followed by Other Passenger High Density Routes and, of course, Covering All Other Routes.
- Three companies have received RDSO approval to supply Kavach equipment, and two more are in the works. Radio communication problems in tunnels, ghat sections, stray livestock on the track, and vulnerabilities of a vehicle passing a closed level crossing have all been fixed.
