Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw has undertaken a daring step while inspecting the ‘Kavach,’ an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, between Gullaguda – Chitgidda Railway stations on Lingampally – Vikarabad section in Secunderabad Division of South Central Railway.
An extensive trial of ‘Kavach’ was conducted in the presence of the Union Minister. Minister was onboard the locomotive which moved from Gullaguda towards Chitgidda. VK Tripathi, Chairman, and CEO, Railway Board was onboard the locomotive that moved from Chitgidda towards Gallaguda.
Thus, during the trial, a head-on-collision situation was created as both the locomotives were moving towards each other and ‘Kavach’ system successfully initiated the automatic braking system and halted the locomotives 380 metres apart.
Also, crossing the red signal was tested; however, the locomotive did not cross the red signal as ‘Kavach’ necessitated the application of brakes automatically. The automatic whistle sound was loud and clear when the gate signal approached.
The crew did not manually touch the sound and braking system during the trial. The speed restriction of 30 Kmph was tested when the locomotive was run on a loop line. ‘Kavach’ automatically reduced the speed to 30 Kmph from 60 Kmph as the locomotive entered the loop line.
Kavach is an indigenously developed ATP system by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with Indian industry and the trials facilitated by South Central Railway to achieve the corporate objective of safety in train operations across Indian Railways.
The state-of-the-art electronic system of Safety Integrity Level – 4 standards is meant to provide protection by preventing trains from passing the signal at danger and avoiding a collision. It automatically activates the train braking system if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions. In addition, it prevents collisions between two locomotives equipped with a functional Kavach system.
“Kavach is one of the cheapest, Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technologies with the probability of error is 1 in 10,000 years. Also, it opens avenues of export of this indigenous technology for Railways,” the ministry said.