Railway Board Chairman and CEO Anil Kumar Lahoti on Sunday inspected the working of ‘Kavach’, an indigenous automatic train protection system developed by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

The South Central Railways has been closely associated with its development since inception, facilitating its trials, and also deploying Kavach extensively over its rail network.

Lahoti participated in the first-hand demonstration of Kavach between Lingampalli and Chitgidda Stations. He travelled in one of the locomotives, equipped with Kavach and observed how the system automatically regulates the speed of the train while passing through the loop lines, how the train whistling automatically happens while passing through the level crossing gates, and how the system prevents the train from passing the signal at danger.

Accompanied by South Central Railways General Manager Arun Kumar Jain and his team of officials, he also observed how the Kavach systems on the rolling stock helps in avoiding the train collisions – either rear collision or head-on collision – with the systems automatically applying brakes without the need for human intervention.

The Railway Board Chief also reviewed the working of Centre of Excellence for KAVACH commissioned at the Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications (IRISET). He reviewed the working of all sub-systems of Kavach and how it helps in making train operations safer. A detailed presentation was given covering all aspects of the working of Kavach.

IRISET Director General Sudhir Kumar along with his team gave a detailed presentation to the Chairman and CEO about CoE.

Kavach is one of the major steps taken by Indian railways in taking forward the Prime Minter’s initiative of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

The South Central Railways has been leading in its deployment across its rail network by already commissioned Kavach across 1,465 rail km (Rkm). The sections where it is deployed includes: 959 Rkm along the Nagarsol-Nanded-Dharmabad-Nizamabad-Secunderabad-Kurnool City-Dhone-Guntakal section, 331 Rkm along Parbhani-Parli Vaijnath-Latur Road-Bidar-Vikarabad section, and 175 RKm along Wadi-Vikarabad-Sanatnagar sections.