The Impressive TimesNew Delhi : Indian Railways has achieved a major safety milestone with the successful commissioning of Kavach 4.0, the upgraded version of India’s indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. The advanced technology has been deployed on 738 route kilometers, including 633 Rkm on the Palwal–Mathura–Nagda section of the Delhi–Mumbai corridor and 105 Rkm on the Howrah–Bardhaman section of the Delhi–Howrah route.
Kavach, which was adopted as the National ATP System in July 2020, is designed to assist loco pilots in maintaining speed limits, automatically applying brakes in case of human error and enhancing safety during low-visibility or adverse weather conditions. The system meets SIL-4 safety certification, the highest global level for railway safety mechanisms.
Developed after extensive field trials and improvements over version 3.2, Kavach 4.0 introduces several critical upgrades:
Enhanced location accuracy
Improved yard signal information for larger and complex yards
OFC-based station interface
Direct integration with electronic interlocking systems
These features make Kavach 4.0 suitable for large-scale deployment across India’s vast and diverse railway network.
Indian Railways has taken up trackside Kavach installation across 15,512 route kilometers, covering all Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal, High Density Network (HDN) and other priority routes.
Key progress indicators include:
7129 km of Optical Fibre Cable laid
860 telecom towers installed
549 stations equipped with Kavach
2674 Rkm of trackside equipment installed
4,154 locomotives currently fitted with Kavach
Bids have also been invited to equip an additional 9,069 locomotives with Kavach 4.0.
To ensure smooth adoption, over 40,000 railway personnel—including 30,000 loco pilots and assistant loco pilots—have been trained in Kavach operations. Training programmes are conducted at centralized institutes in collaboration with IRISET.
The cost of installing Kavach along tracks is estimated at ₹50 lakh per km, while equipping each locomotive costs around ₹80 lakh.
So far, ₹2,354.36 crore has been utilized up to October 2025, with ₹1,673.19 crore allocated for FY 2025–26.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Rajya Sabha that the system is being deployed in a phased manner, with adequate funding provided as per project progress.
With the rollout of Kavach 4.0, Indian Railways is taking major strides toward minimizing human error, improving train control efficiency, and enhancing the safety of millions of passengers traveling every day across India’s busiest routes.
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