Indian Railways spent Rs 352 crore on Kavach system so far in 2023-24

What Is 'Kavach'

The Indian Railways has awarded tenders for the installation of the indigenously developed anti-collision system 'Kavach' on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors, according to Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw's written response to a question in the Lok Sabha on August 2.

He added that, so far in 2023-24, Rs 353 crore has been spent on Kavach implementation. The budgetary allocation for Kavach during the year 2023-24 is Rs 710.12 Crores.

Vaishnaw further stated that tenders will soon be awarded to install the Kavach system across various regions, including 229 km in West Bengal, 193 km in Jharkhand, 227 km in Bihar, 943 km in Uttar Pradesh, 30 km in Delhi, 81 km in Haryana, 425 km in Rajasthan, 216 km in Madhya Pradesh, 526 km in Gujarat, and 848 km in Maharashtra.

The minister clarified that Indian Railways is currently preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and detailed estimates for the aforementioned installations, and tenders will be awarded once these DPRs are finalized.

Vaishnaw also revealed that Kavach has been deployed on 1465 Route km and 121 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on South Central Railway.

It's worth noting that the Indian Railways had only deployed Kavach on 20 route km (RKM) in 2022-23, following deployments of 859 km during 2021-22, and 321 RKM in 2020-21.

In earlier years, around 250 km of the railway network was covered by Kavach in 2018-19, and the following year, another 15 km was covered by Kavach.

Also Read : Exclusive: Tender for Kavach systems soon, will cover 650 km of freight corridor

Vaishnaw also told the parliament that at the moment there are three Indian original equipment makers who are approved for Kavach and efforts are being made to develop more vendors to enhance the capacity and scale up the implementation of Kavach.

"The Cost for provision of Trackside including Station equipment of Kavach is approximately Rs 50 Lakhs/Km and the cost for the provision of Kavach equipment on the loco is approximately Rs 70 lakh/ loco," Vaishnaw said in his reply.

Also Read: Explained | How does railways' collision prevention system Kavach work?

In a separate reply, the minister said that Rs 4,198 crore has been allocated for the modernisation of the signalling systems of Indian Railways. The minister did not provide a figure for the amount that has been spent so far in 2023-24.

However, he did mention that 339 tenders for signaling works have been invited during 2023-24 on the Indian Railway network.

In his response, Vaishnaw added that in 2022-23 the Indian Railways spent Rs 2,456 crore for the modernisation of signalling systems of the national carrier.

The minister in a third response also said that as of June 30, 2023, a total of 48 Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminals have been commissioned across the country.

He added that Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal operators are expected to complete the construction within twenty-four months from the grant of ‘In-Principle-Approval’.