Indian Railways on Thursday commissioned 472.3 route kilometres of Kavach Version 4.0, the indigenous Automatic Train Protection system, marking the highest-ever commissioning achieved in a single day and within a single month.
The newly commissioned stretches include the Vadodara-Virar section covering 344 Km on Western Railway, the Tuglakabad Junction Cabin-Palwal section of 35 Km on Northern Railway, and the Manpur-Sarmatanr section spanning 93.3 Km on East Central Railway, according to the Ministry of Railways.
With this addition, Kavach Version 4.0 has now been commissioned over a total of 1,306.3 route kilometres across five zones of Indian Railways. Prior to the latest rollout, the system had been operational over 834 route kilometres, including the Palwal-Mathura-Nagda section of the Delhi-Mumbai route, the Howrah-Bardhaman section of the Delhi-Howrah route, and the Bajwa-Ahmedabad section in Gujarat.
The latest commissioning surpasses the previous single-day record of 324 route kilometres achieved on the Kota-Mathura section of West Central Railway.
On Northern Railway, Kavach 4.0 has been commissioned on the 35 Km Tuglakabad Junction Cabin-Palwal section of the four-line Delhi-Mumbai route, which spans 152 main line track kilometres. The system has been installed across major station yards, two main lines with automatic signalling, and two lines operating under absolute block signalling. The corridor caters to high-density passenger, suburban, and freight traffic.
On East Central Railway, train operations have commenced with Kavach 4.0 on the 93.3 Km Manpur-Sarmatanr section of the Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya division. The first Kavach-enabled service on this stretch was Train No. 13305 Sasaram Intercity Express. During trial operations, a head-on collision test was conducted in which the system automatically applied brakes, validating its operational effectiveness.
Kavach installation is underway across 4,235 route kilometres of East Central Railway, including 417 route kilometres on the Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction-Manpur section, a key part of the Delhi-Howrah trunk route cleared for 130 Kmph, with works progressing under Mission Raftar to enhance speeds to 160 Kmph.
On Western Railway, Kavach 4.0 has been commissioned on the 344 Km Vadodara-Surat-Virar section of the Delhi-Mumbai route. The milestone was marked by Train No. 20907 Dadar-Bhuj Sayajinagri Express becoming the first Kavach-equipped train to operate from Mumbai. Work on the Vadodara-Nagda section is expected to be completed by March 2026, while the Virar-Mumbai Central section is targeted for completion by September 2026. So far, 364 locomotives on Western Railway have been equipped with Kavach, with sanctioned works covering an additional 2,667 route kilometres.
Kavach Version 4.0, approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation and certified by an Independent Safety Assessor, integrates microprocessors, GPS, and radio communication to provide protection against Signal Passing at Danger, overspeeding, wrong-direction movements, and side, head-on, and rear-end collisions. The system complies with SIL-4 safety standards, the highest level of safety integrity globally.
The latest commissioning marks another step in Indian Railways’ ongoing effort to strengthen operational safety across high-density routes nationwide.
