Indian Railways Deploys Kavach 4.0 Safety System on Delhi-Mumbai Route

Indian Railways has successfully commissioned the indigenous train safety system Kavach 4.0 on the Mathura-Kota section of the high-density Delhi-Mumbai corridor. This marks a major leap in modernizing India’s railway safety infrastructure.

Kavach, developed domestically, is a state-of-the-art Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to prevent collisions by controlling train speed and ensuring automatic brake application when necessary. It helps loco pilots maintain safe speeds even in low visibility conditions such as fog, with real-time signal information displayed on dashboards inside the locomotive cab.

Until recently, India had no advanced train protection system of international standards, despite more than six decades of post-independence railway operations. The rollout of Kavach addresses this long-standing gap, enhancing passenger safety and operational efficiency.

The latest version, Kavach 4.0, was approved in May 2025 for use at speeds up to 160 kmph. Indian Railways plans to install it across multiple routes within six years. Over 30,000 personnel have already been trained, and IRISET has signed MoUs with 17 AICTE-approved engineering institutes to include Kavach in their B.Tech curriculum.

Kavach operates at Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL 4), the highest global safety standard. The system includes RFID tags at every kilometre of track and at all signals, full-fledged telecom towers with optical fiber connectivity, onboard Loco Kavach devices integrated with braking systems, Station Kavach units to monitor and guide loco movement, and centralized signalling integration.

Despite the technical complexity, comparable to setting up an entire telecom network, the implementation is underway without disrupting ongoing passenger or freight train services.

As of now, Indian Railways has laid 5,856 km of optical fiber cable, installed 619 telecom towers, commissioned Kavach at 708 stations and on 1,107 locomotives, and deployed trackside equipment across 4,001 route km. With over ₹1 lakh crore invested annually in railway safety, Kavach represents a key pillar in India’s journey toward safer, smarter train travel.