It’s been 4 years since Indian Railways started deploying the gadget, but only one,465 route km (Rkm), or 2 per cent of the nation’s 68,000-Rkm railway community has been lined to this point. About 139 locomotives, belonging to the South Central Railway zone, have been put in with the security gadget.
In a social media put up, Sudhanshu Mani, a former Indian Railways officer who’s believed to be the pressure behind the launch of the Vande Bharat specific trains, mentioned the incident underscored the necessity for a speedier rollout of Kavach, which, he confused, “would have absolutely prevented this tragedy”.
“No time for blame sport or ‘I informed you so’ however it’s disappointing that IR (Indian Railways) is once more making an attempt to get away with lame excuses like ‘trade’s capability’. Personal it up…” the retired officer wrote.
After the primary subject trials of Kavach in February 2016, three corporations — Kernex, HBL Methods, and Medha — have been chosen in 2018-19 for the manufacture and provide of the gadget.
Manufacturing hitch
Senior railway officers have incessantly attributed the gradual rollout of Kavach to the capability constraints of the present distributors, and the prolonged course of for onboarding new ones.
A minimum of two distributors, together with Quadrant (with which RailTel has signed a memorandum of understanding), are awaiting clearance. Just a few extra authentic gear producers (OEMs) are anticipated to be onboarded by way of upcoming tenders. The complexities concerned embody the necessity to customise the gadget for every practice.
How Kavach works
Officers clarify that a number of shifting components of the Kavach system must be synced throughout knowledge centres, tracks, and locomotives. It should even be synced in accordance with practice velocity and weight, and the kind of practice — specifically items or passenger carrying.
Kavach broadly includes a stationary management unit or station unit, a radio unit, and an array of passive radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags positioned at station and block sections.
If the locomotive is working past the protected velocity restrict, the Kavach anti-collision system sounds an alert to the loco pilot for 5 seconds earlier than initiating the brakes
| Picture Credit score: NAGARA GOPAL
The onboard gear includes a brake interface, a pc linked to a velocity sensor, RFID reader, radio unit, and show unit.
The onboard RFID reader is mounted on the under-frame of a locomotive to be able to learn the RFID tags fitted between rails and acquire knowledge such because the distinctive tag ID, route of journey, distinctive monitor identification quantity, and so forth. This knowledge is communicated to the station unit by way of the radio hyperlink.
The station unit locates the practice and sends info such because the approaching sign, which the onboard gear makes use of in tandem with the practice velocity detected by way of sensors mounted on the loco axle to find out whether or not it’s inside a protected velocity restrict.
If the locomotive is working past the protected velocity restrict, an alert is sounded to the loco pilot for 5 seconds earlier than initiating the brakes and bringing the practice to a whole cease.
Set up timeline
By the tip of the yr, Kavach is anticipated to cowl the three,000-km Delhi–Howrah route, one of many busiest for Indian Railways. The 1,531-Rkm most important line and 1,432-Rkm Grand Chord line will collectively cowl 4 main railway zones — Jap, East-Central, Northern, and North-Central.
In a 2022 report, North Central Railway had acknowledged {that a} majority of practice accidents ensuing from ‘sign passing at hazard’ or overshooting a cease sign was on account of human error, together with momentary lack of focus.
Indian Railways experiences, on common, 50 circumstances of ‘sign passing at hazard’ a yr (2016 to March 2021). “In response to the persevering with want to scale back dangers… an ATP (computerized practice safety) system has been envisaged,” it mentioned.
“The preparation of detailed estimates is underway for an additional 6,000 Rkm, together with the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Guwahati routes,” a senior railway ministry official informed businessline.
Tenders for Kavach
The opposite railway zones have additionally ordered surveys for Kavach set up.
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) had in Might introduced that Kavach shall be put in alongside 2,000 Rkm (of its 4,416-Rkm community) between Dibrugarh (Assam) and Maldah City (West Bengal).
Southern Railway plans to cowl 2,216 Rkm. “Set up shall be in phases, with precedence for Vande Bharat routes,” a ministry official mentioned.
North-Western Railway — masking Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat — plans to cowl 1,600 Rkm by 2025.
Western Railway will set up alongside 735 Rkm, together with the 336-Rkm Virar–Surat–Vadodara line, 303-Rkm Vadodara–Ratlam–Nagda line, and 96-Rkm Vadodara–Ahmedabad phase. Round 90 locomotives are anticipated to have Kavach put in this yr.
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