Indian Railways (IR) has utilized Rs 3874 crore worth of funds on Kavach works up to June 2026. This information was provided by the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The allocation of funds during the year 2026-27 is Rs 2066 crore, he said. Kavach works are going on at a good pace in the entire country and requisite funds are made available as per the progress of works, he added.
Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. The system aids the Loco Pilot in running of trains within specified speed limits by automatic application of brakes in case Loco Pilot fails to do so and also helps the trains to run safely during inclement weather.
Kavach is a highly technology intensive system, which requires safety certification of highest order (SIL-4). Implementation of Kavach System involves following activities:
a. Installation of Station Kavach at each and every station, block section.
b. Installation of RFID Tags throughout the track length.
c. Installation of telecom Towers throughout the section.
d. Laying of Optical Fibre Cable along the track.
e. Provision of Loco Kavach on each and every Locomotive running on Indian Railways.
Progress of key items of Kavach on Indian Railway sections are as under:-
| Item | Progress |
| Laying of Optical Fibre Cable | 11,253 Km |
| Installation of Telecom Towers | 1,668 Nos. |
| Station Data Centre | 988 station |
| Installation of Track side equipment | 7,726 RKm |
| Provision of Kavach in Loco | 6,153 Nos. |
In addition, work for installation of Kavach in 7,327 Locomotives and 1,200 EMU/MEMU has been taken up. Specialized training programmes on Kavach are being conducted at IR’s centralized training institutes in collaboration with IRISET to impart training to all concerned railway men.
As on date, over 94,000 railway men- technicians, operators and engineers- have been trained on Kavach technology. This includes about 57,000 Loco Pilots and Assistant Loco Pilots.
Kavach version 4.0
Kavach version 4.0 covers all the major features required for the diverse railway network. Major improvement in Version 4.0 includes increased location accuracy, improved information on signal aspects in bigger yards, station to station Kavach interface on OFC and direct interface to existing electronic interlocking system.
After extensive and elaborate trials, Kavach Version 4.0 has been successfully commissioned on 2,569 Route Kilometres as on July 20, 2026 covering the high density Delhi- Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes as below:
| Section | Progress (Route Km) |
| Delhi-Mumbai route: 1,423 Rkm | |
| Tilak Bridge – Junction cabin – Palwal – Mathura – Kota – Nagda – Ratlam – Vadodara – Virar section | 1,327 |
| Vadodara – Ahmedabad section | 96 |
| Delhi – Howrah route: 1,146 Rkm | |
| Chipyana – Tundla – Kanpur – Subedarganj section | 563 |
| Kanpur – Lucknow section | 71 |
| DDU(FOC)-Bhabua Road section | 50 |
| Sasaram – Phesar section | 43 |
| Gaya -Sarmatarn- Nimiaghat section | 159 |
| Chota Ambana – Bardhaman – Howrah section | 260 |
Kavach Implementation Timeline
In February 2016, the first field trials on passenger trains were started. Based on the experience and Independent Safety Assessment of the system by Independent Safety Assessor (ISA), three firms were approved in 2018-19, for supply of Kavach version 3.2.
In July 2020, Kavach was adopted as National Automatic Train Protection System (ATP). Based on deployment of Kavach version 3.2 on 1465 route km on South Central Railway and experience gained, further improvements were made. Finally, Kavach specification version 4.0 was approved by RDSO on July 16, 2024.
