Railway Minister Dodges Questions on Implementation of Kavach Train-Collision-Avoidance System

New Delhi: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (July 24) evaded queries on the timeline for installing the Kavach train-collision-avoidance system throughout India.

After a string of railway disasters in 2023, the demand for Kavach has increased, reported The Telegraph.

While Rs. 1,113 crore has been allotted for Kavach out of the total amount of Rs. 262 lakh crore allocated for railways in the budget this year, the security system presently covers only a little over 2 per cent of the railways network across the country.

“Kavach-like systems were introduced in Europe in the 1980s and 90s. Unfortunately, for a long time, the governments India did not pay attention to this. After coming to power, Modiji immediately focussed on this. Now we can rapidly start rolling it out....Very soon we will be coming out with a complete action plan which we will share with you,” Vaishnaw said during a briefing on the railway budget, reported The Telegraph.

But when The Telegraph asked for a timeline for implementing Kavach, the minister said that the plan to install Kavach 4.0 would be revealed in the coming months and weeks.

Vaishnaw also said that the amount allocated for Bengal in the railway budget during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is comparatively higher than the allocation at the time when there was a railway minister from Bengal (during the tenure of UPA 2).

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