South Central Railway (SCR) on Sunday announced the successful completion of field trials of Kavach – the home-grown automatic train protection system – on 487 route kilometers (Rkm), along with the commissioning of Automatic Block Signaling (ABS) over 479 Rkm during the financial year 2025-26.
Field trials of Kavach version 4.0 exceeded the Railway Board’s target of 402 Rkm. The trials were conducted on Kazipet-Peddampet (101 Rkm), Malkajgiri-Kamareddi (106 Rkm), Charlapalli-Raghunathpalli (79 Rkm), Guntakal-Raichur (120 Rkm) and Mudkhed-Parbhani (81 Rkm) sections. According to the official report, Kavach trials mounted on the locomotive were also successfully put into operation on these sections.
Similarly, the commissioning of ABS, aimed at increasing the capacity of the section, exceeded the Railway Board’s target of 357 Rkm. ABS has been commissioned on Kazipet-Balharshah, Vijayawada-Duvvada and Wadi-Renigunta sections covering a total distance of 479 Rkm.
ABS is a train operation system in which the movement of trains is controlled by automatic stopwatches. It allows multiple trains traveling in the same direction to follow each other safely without the risk of rear-end collisions.
The system helps reduce operating costs, increase track capacity and improve average train speeds. ABS is initially being rolled out on high density and Grand Trunk routes within the SCR network.
Director General Sanjay Kumar Srivastava lauded the Signal and Telecommunications wing for the record commissioning of ABS and completion of Kavach field trials and said that railway safety continues to be a top priority.
Meanwhile, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inspected the new sample cars developed with the proposed interior design and color schemes for the new generation Amrit Bharat buses at the New Delhi railway station.
Published – 6 Apr 2026 09:32 IST
