More than Rs 557 crore has been allocated in the interim Budget 2024-25 for the installation of the railways' anti-collision device 'Kavach', Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

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In a written response to questions posed by Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan, the minister said "funds are no constraints" in the installation of the indigenously developed automatic train protection system.

Besides raising the issue of fund allocation for installation of Kavach in the interim Budget 2024-25, Khan asked “the reasons for slow pace of installation of Kavach system in Indian Railways” and “whether less budget and least release of funds are behind its slow pace.” He also wanted to know the steps proposed or to be proposed to accelerate it.

The minister said Kavach is a highly technology intensive system, which requires safety certification of the highest order.

According to him, Kavach was adopted as a national automatic train protection (ATP) system in July 2020 and it has so far been deployed on 1,465 route km and 139 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on South Central Railway.

The fund allocated for installation of anti-collision device ‘Kavach' in the interim Budget 2024-25 is Rs 557.96 crore, he said.

He informed the Upper House that Kavach tenders have been awarded for Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors, approximately 3,000 route km.

Presenting the progress report, the minister stated that optical fiber cable has been laid on 3,040 km and 269 telecom towers have also been installed.

Besides, 186 equipment at stations and 170 equipment in locos have also been placed, he said, adding that the track-side equipment have also been installed on 827 route km.

Providing the details of Kavach system, he said, "Implementation of Kavach involves installation of Station Kavach at each and every station, installation of RFID tags throughout the track length and provision of Loco Kavach on each and every Locomotive running on Indian Railways, a communication backbone, requiring installation of towers throughout the section, laying of optical fiber throughout the section. Kavach is being provided progressively." 

"Presently, there are three OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) approved for Kavach. Approval of OEMs is a continuous process and further efforts are being made to develop more OEMs to enhance the capacity and scale up the implementation,” he added.