Addressing apprehensions that the year-on-year deployment of the indigenously developed anti-collision system for the Indian Railways - Kavach - is slow, Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the first tender for route length of 3,000 kms is progressing steadily.
Mr. Vaishnaw said on November 29 that the tender was rolled out in December 2022 for Mumbai to Delhi and Delhi to Howrah High-Density Network corridors and has multiple components to it. “The Radio Survey and Design part is 98% complete, the tower installation work is 51% done, optical fibre cables have been laid out in 45% of the area and up to 33% work is complete on railway stations,” Mr. Vaishnaw said.
In reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha about the extent of Kavach deployment, Mr. Vaishnaw had earlier mentioned that in 2018-19, Kavach was deployed along 250 kms, in 2019-20 along another 15 kms, in 2020-21 yet another 321 kms were covered, while in 2021-22 another 859 kms were added and in 2022-23 only 20 kms were further added.
