The loco pilot tests the functionality of KAVACH. Image is for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: The Hindu
According to officials, around 25% of the works on these routes have been commissioned and are in a ready-to-use condition, while major components for the remaining 75% have already been installed.
The railways, which missed the second deadline of December 2025, now hopes to roll out the Kavach automatic train security system on routes connecting the national capital with Mumbai and Howrah sometime in 2026 with steady progress and an aggressive approach, officials said.
Kavach is an autonomously developed, high-tech system that helps locomotive pilots maintain set speed limits by automatically braking if the driver fails to do so.
According to officials, around 25% of the works on these routes have been commissioned and are in a ready-to-use condition, while major components for the remaining 75% have already been installed. “We are doing our best to operationalize Kavach on Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata routes, we hope to achieve this by 2026,” they said.
On 7 August 2024, the Ministry of Railways said that work on the installation of Kavach on the listed routes would be completed by March 2025. It announced an extension of the deadline from March to December 2025 to 1 February 2025 in a budget document titled “Railway Estimates for Revised Estimates 2024-205 and Budget.6”.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave an update on the progress of Kavach installation on December 17 in the Lok Sabha. “After extensive trials, Kavach version 4.0 has been successfully commissioned on 738 route km (RKm), including the Palwal-Mathura-Nagda section (633 Rkm) on the Delhi-Mumbai route and the Howrah-Bardhaman section (105 Rkm) on the Delhi-Howrah route,” he said.
“The optical cable was laid for a length of 7,129 km with the installation of 800 telecommunication towers.”
Mr. Vaishnaw added that other components of Kavach like Station Kavach have been installed at 860 stations, track facilities on 5,672 km of track and Loco Kavach on 4,154 locomotives.
Published – 27 Dec 2025 20:26 IST
