What is the new Indigenous Safety System Kavach 4.0 on the Mathura-Kota section of Indian Railways?

New Delhi, July 30 (NationPress) The Indian Railways has officially launched the advanced indigenous railway safety system Kavach 4.0 on the Mathura-Kota segment of the bustling Delhi-Mumbai corridor. This state-of-the-art system aims to avert accidents by effectively monitoring and regulating train speeds, as highlighted by Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday.

The Minister further stated that Indian Railways plans to roll out Kavach 4.0 on various routes nationwide over the next six years. To date, over 30,000 personnel have received training on the Kavach systems.

The Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications (IRISET) has entered into an MOU with 17 AICTE-approved engineering colleges and universities to integrate Kavach into their B.Tech course offerings.

This system assists locomotive pilots in maintaining optimal train speeds through effective brake applications. In poor visibility scenarios, such as fog, pilots can access signals directly from a dashboard inside the cabin, eliminating the need to look outside.

Kavach is built to Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL 4), marking the highest safety design standard.

After extensive testing over three years and leveraging experiences from the South Central Railway, an enhanced version ‘Kavach 4.0’ was developed and approved in May 2025 for operational speeds of up to 160 km/h.

The complexity of Kavach is akin to establishing a telecommunications company. It incorporates RFID tags positioned every kilometer along the track and at each signal, providing accurate train location data.

Comprehensive telecom towers, including optical fiber connections and power supplies, are installed at intervals along the track. The Kavach systems on locomotives and the controllers at stations maintain constant communication via these towers.

The locomotive Kavach interacts with the RFID tags on the tracks, transmitting information to telecom towers while receiving radio signals from the station’s Kavach. It is also integrated with the locomotives' braking system to ensure immediate brake application in emergencies.

These sophisticated systems must be installed, inspected, and certified without disrupting existing railway operations, which include heavy passenger and freight train traffic.

Indian Railways allocates over Rs 1 lakh crore annually towards safety initiatives, with Kavach being one of several efforts aimed at boosting passenger and train safety, according to the Minister.