Railways approves ₹206 crore Kavach shield across 680 km in north India

Kavach version 4.0 will be installed on Rewari-Delhi and Shakurbasti-Bathinda sections, including feeder branch lines for reliable train operations, the Ministry of Railways said

Indian Railways has approved a ₹206 crore project to deploy its indigenous Kavach version 4.0 on 680 route kilometres (RKm) of the Northern railway network, the ministry said in a release on Friday.

 

The system will be installed on the Rewari-Delhi and Shakurbasti-Bathinda sections, including feeder branch lines, of the Delhi division, Northern Railway.

 

“The project forms part of Indian Railways' ongoing nationwide rollout of Kavach, aimed at expanding the indigenous safety system across high-density and strategically important routes,” the statement said.

 

Kavach is India's indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to enhance railway safety by preventing Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD) incidents and train collisions.

 

 

Designed to achieve "zero accidents," the system automatically applies a train's brakes if the driver overshoots a signal at danger or if another train is detected on the same track.

 

Long way to go for Kavach

 

Railways has set an ambitious target to ensure large-scale deployment of Kavach. However, the system still covers only a small part of India's vast railway network. As of March 2026, Kavach had been installed on 3,103 route kilometres, while work was underway across another 24,427 route kilometres, according to the Railways.

 

Kavach is commissioned on only about 4.4 per cent of the network, which spans nearly 70,000 route kilometres.

 

The rollout has accelerated with Kavach 4.0, primarily on high-density and high-utilisation corridors, including sections of the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes.

 

The newly approved 680-km Northern railway project will add to this wider expansion, though approval does not mean the system is already operational on these routes.