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North Central Railway commissions Kavach 4.0 on Karchana-Mirzapur, reaching 785 km

By CAShorts DeskPublished Source: The Indian Express; Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Railways)

North Central Railway commissions Kavach 4.0 on Karchana-Mirzapur, reaching 785 km
Illustration (AI-generated)

The North Central Railway (NCR) has brought Kavach 4.0, India's indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, into service between Karchana and Mirzapur, a 69.5-km stretch of the Delhi-Howrah route. The zone's Kavach network now covers 785 route kilometres. Kavach brakes a train automatically when the loco pilot fails to, guarding against signals passed at danger, overspeeding and collisions.

Syllabus: Prelims · Current Affairs & IR; GS3 · Infrastructure; GS3 · Indian Achievements in S&T

Why this matters for UPSC

GS3 infrastructure and science and technology: railway safety and indigenous technology. Prelims can ask how Kavach works and who developed it; Mains, the pace of rail safety upgrades.

Why it matters

A loco pilot driving through thick fog on the Delhi-Howrah line cannot always see the next signal in time. Until now that pilot's eyes and reflexes were the last safeguard; one missed red light could put two trains on the same track. With Kavach working, the cab screen shows what lies ahead and the brakes come on by themselves if the pilot does not act. For passengers, that means a much smaller chance of a head-on or rear-end crash on one of the busiest lines in the country. It also lets trains run faster with confidence, which matters as more trains crowd the same tracks.

Prelims pointers

  • Kavach became the National ATP system in July 2020; its first field trials on passenger trains began in February 2016.
  • Kavach supports multi-vendor interoperability; after independent safety assessment, three firms were approved in 2018-19 to supply version 3.2.
  • Kavach guards against Signal Passing at Danger, overspeeding and head-on and rear-end collisions, and keeps working in fog and poor weather.
  • Kavach's in-cab display shows movement authority, target speed, target distance and signal aspects, which a PIB backgrounder calls essential for safe running above 120 kmph.
  • Before version 4.0, Kavach version 3.2 was deployed on 1,465 route km of the South Central Railway, and that experience shaped the upgrade.
  • Kavach 4.0 is the mainline version under wide rollout; Kavach 5.0, announced in April 2025 for suburban sections, aims to cut headway and is planned for Vande Bharat 4.0.

Practise a UPSC-style question

With reference to Kavach, consider the following statements:

1. It was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation for Indian Railways.

2. It was adopted as the National Automatic Train Protection system of Indian Railways.

3. Track-mounted RFID tags give the locomotive its precise location on the line.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. (a) 1 and 2 only
  2. (b) 2 and 3 only
  3. (c) 1 and 3 only
  4. (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only. Kavach is the National ATP system and reads its position from RFID tags, but RDSO, not DRDO, developed it.

Statement 1: incorrect. Indian Railways developed Kavach through the Research Designs & Standards Organization (RDSO), its own standards body, not the DRDO.

Statement 2: correct. The Ministry of Railways records that Kavach became India's National ATP system in July 2020.

Statement 3: correct. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags laid along the track tell the onboard unit exactly where the train is.

Eliminate: statement 1 names the wrong developer, so every option with 1 goes. Out: (a), (c), (d).

Trap: Swapped attribution. DRDO is the best-known Indian developer of indigenous systems with names like Kavach, so the question pins RDSO's work on it.

Remember: Kavach comes from RDSO, the Railways' own research and standards body.

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