Indian Railways rolls out Kavach 4.0 on Gujarat’s Vadodara–Ahmedabad section

Indian Railways on Monday commissioned Kavach 4.0, the latest version of its indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, on the Bajwa (Vadodara)–Ahmedabad section in Gujarat as the country steps up efforts to improve rail safety.

The 96-km stretch, Gujarat’s first to be equipped with Kavach 4.0, covers 17 stations and is supported by extensive infrastructure, including 23 telecom towers, 20 Kavach huts, 192 km of optical fibre cable and the installation of 2,872 RFID tags, an official statement said.

The first Kavach-enabled train on the route was the Sankalp Fast Passenger (59549/59550), operated using WAP-7 locomotives and 11 LHB coaches.

With this commissioning, Kavach has now been implemented on more than 2,200 route kilometres across the country.

What is Kavach?

Kavach is an indigenously developed ATP system of Indian Railways designed to prevent accidents by automatically applying brakes if a train overshoots signals, exceeds speed limits or faces the risk of head-on or rear-end collision.

Certified to Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4), Kavach 4.0 is one of the highest global safety standards in railway signalling systems.

It assists loco pilots by automatically applying brakes when prescribed speed limits are breached or when safety conditions are compromised.

The system also features an SOS facility and automatic whistling at level crossing gates. Version 4.0 includes improvements such as more accurate train positioning, enhanced signal information in large station yards, faster communication through optical fibre links between stations, and direct integration with existing electronic interlocking systems, the statement said.

The upgraded system has also been certified by an Independent Safety Assessor to meet global safety standards.

According to the statement, continuous upgrades based on operational experience and independent safety assessments led to the approval of Kavach Version 4.0 by Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

The commissioning on the Vadodara–Ahmedabad section comes as Indian Railways accelerates the rollout of indigenous safety technologies following a series of fatal accidents in recent years that have raised concerns about signalling and operational safety.