The Indian Railways is speeding up the installation of the Kavach Automatic Train Protection system after recent train accidents. The government has launched plans to install Kavach on 9,600 km of railway tracks and equip 10,000 locomotives with this safety system in the coming months.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has outlined several steps to prevent train accidents, focusing on reducing human errors, improving track maintenance, and strengthening railway infrastructure.
So far, Kavach has been successfully installed on 740 km of tracks after trials and has received the highest level of safety certification (SIL-4) in July this year. Designed in 2016, the system aims to prevent collisions and ensure safer train operations.
Kavach is more affordable and just as effective as the European Train Control System, according to Vaishnaw. The system is designed to reduce the impact of driver errors, which are responsible for 80% of train accidents. The remaining 20% of accidents are due to track and equipment issues.
The ministry is also addressing cattle accidents on railway tracks, with 800 such incidents happening daily. Efforts are underway to reduce this to 200 by building fencing along railway tracks, as done on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route.
As the Railways increases the speed of trains like Vande Bharat to 130-140 km/h, fencing on more routes will be crucial for safety.
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