Odisha accident: Railways to expedite adoption of anti-collision Kavach system
The tragic incident, one of the worst railway accidents in the country, had once again brought back focus on train safety systems such as Kavach
PremiumNew Delhi Indian Railways would fast-track plans to implement Kavach, an advanced protection technology, alongside block signalling and centralised traffic control systems on busy routes, a railway official said.
This comes in the wake of Friday's gruesome train accident in Balasore district, Odisha, involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train that left over 238 dead and 650 injured.
A railway spokesperson said that the rescue operation is almost complete, and now Railways has started restoration work.
Kavach system was not available on this route, said Amitabh Sharma, railways spokesperson on the train accident.
The tragic incident, one of the worst railway accidents in the country, had once again brought back focus on train safety systems such as Kavach, an official said.
Developed by the Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) in association with the Indian industry, Kavach is a cutting-edge electronic safety system. It automatically triggers the train's brakes if the operator fails to comply with speed restrictions, thereby preventing collisions.
Initial plans were to prioritise the implementation of these safety systems on busy routes. However, the tragic event has made Indian Railways fast-track these plans to ensure safer operations on high-density routes.
The first priority would be to a speed running if trains on railway network up to 160 km per hour with automatic block signaling and centralized traffic control on high-density routes and New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah sections.
The second priority would be have Kavach system on trains running on heavily used networks with automatic block signaling and centralized traffic control. In the third phase, Kavach will be used on other passenger high density routes with automatic block signalling.
Officials said, that the priority order would now be fast-tracked to see whether this anti-collision system, which works best for heavy-density routes where trains run at frequent intervals and gap between two trains is often a lot less than other routes.
Block signalling will stop trains automatically if the train operator fails to see a signal. Centralised control would add another level of manual or physical check on train operations supported by system checks.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit the train accident site in Odisha.
News agency ANI quoted railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as saying “A detailed high-level inquiry will be conducted and the rail safety commissioner will also do an independent inquiry."
"Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here!
