Ashwini Vaishnaw, Indian Railways’ Minister of Railways, has announced success of the Kavach System, the anti-collision test which was conducted by the Indian Railways to test the indigenously developed system for preventing rail accidents. He conducted an inspection near Secunderabad. With the indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, Kavach, Indian Railways is working towards achieving zero accidents. Kavach automatically stops the train before 380 metres of other locomotives at the front.
Two trains – one carrying the Minister of Railways and the other carrying the Chairman of the Railway Board – hurtled towards each other at full speed during the test. They came to a halt about 380 metres apart. The Kavach is the world’s most affordable automatic train collision protection system. After implementation, the railway authorities said it would cost 50 lakh rupees per kilometer to operate, compared to about 2 crore rupees worldwide.