Indian Railways has approved the installation of the indigenous Kavach Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system on the balance Broad Gauge sections of the Ambala Division of Northern Railway.
The project, covering 811 route kilometres, has been sanctioned at a cost of ₹201 crore, the Ministry of Railways informed on Monday.
The work has been approved under the umbrella programme for the provision of Kavach with an LTE-based communication backbone on the remaining routes of Indian Railways.
The sanctioned project will cover important rail sections in the Ambala Division, including Ambala Cantonment–Ludhiana, Kalka–Chandigarh–New Morinda–Sahnewal, Sirhind–Daulatpur Chowk, Rajpura–Bathinda–Shri Ganganagar, and Ludhiana–Dhuri–Jakhal.
These routes serve as vital rail corridors connecting the states of Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh. They handle substantial passenger and freight traffic and play a crucial role in the movement of people and goods across the region.
Kavach is an indigenously developed ATP system designed to enhance operational safety. It helps prevent Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD), automatically applies brakes when required to avert unsafe situations, controls train speed under critical conditions, and significantly reduces the risk of collisions.
Indian Railways is progressively expanding the Kavach system across its network as part of its ongoing efforts to improve safety, reliability, and capacity on high-density and strategically important routes.
The Ministry also stated that Indian Railways has approved the installation of Kavach Version 4.0 on 598 route kilometres, covering 48 block sections of the Ahmedabad Division of Western Railway in Gujarat.
This project has been sanctioned at a cost of ₹140 crore and has also been approved under the umbrella programme for the provision of Kavach with an LTE-based communication backbone on the remaining routes of Indian Railways.
Earlier, Kavach work had already been sanctioned on approximately 702 route kilometres of the Ahmedabad Division. With the approval of the present project, the remaining sections of the division will also be brought under Kavach, paving the way for the wider deployment of the indigenous train protection system across the division.