On June 2, Friday, Odisha witnessed a horrific accident, involving three trains, that left at least 261 people dead and more than 900 others injured. The crash took place at Baghnaga Bazzar in Balasore around 7 pm when the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express derailed and 10-12 of its coaches fell on the adjacent tracks on which the Bengaluru-Howrah Express was travelling. Some of the derailed coaches also crashed into a goods train.
This incident has sparked off debates on 'Kavach', an indigenously designed train protection system, even as a railway spokesperson confirmed that the system was not installed in the trains involved in Balasore accident. The question being raised is that whether 'Kavach' would have prevented such a disastrous accident. Experts' answer is a clear 'No'.
Speaking to a TV channel, Sudhanshu Mani, a railway engineer and the man behind the Vande Bharat Express, said the 'Kavach' could not have averted the accident since it was not the signalling failure but the train derailment that led to the mishap. Mani said the government should start an investigation into how the train derailed in the first place.
What is Kavach?
Kavach is an automatic train protection system indigenously developed by the Research Design and Standard Organization (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry with trials facilitated by the South Central Railway.
Its objective is to increase safety in train operations across the country. According to the Railway Ministry, 'Kavach' prevents trains from passing the red stop signal, thus avoiding chances of collision. The train's automatic braking system activates if the driver fails to control the train within the speed restrictions.
A successful trial of Kavach was conducted on March 4, 2022 between Gallaguda and Chitgidda stations of South Central Railway. The ministry claims that 'Kavach' is one of the “cheapest Safety Integrety Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technologies with a probability of 1 error in 10,000 years.”
What's its implementation status?
The plan, according to the 'Kavach' deployment strategy of the Indian railways, was to implement the protection systems to an extent of 2000 km during 2022-23. Around 34,000 km of railway networks were to be brought under 'Kavach'. As per the Railway Board, the first priority was given to high-density Routes, the second priority was highly used networks, the third priority was passenger high-density routes and the fourth was all other routes.
On December 23, 2022, Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha said that the 'Kavach' works were in progress on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howra corridors, as per the first priority set.
Train Collision Avoidance Systems in other countries
Train Collision Avoidance Systems are designed to identify the location of trains that are traveling using radio frequency identification (RFID) from various stations to avoid collisions. In the United States, Positive Train Control (PTC) systems are in operation. These are designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, and incursion into established work zones. They cover 57,536 miles of passenger railroads. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated the implementation of PTC systems on class 1 railroads. The installation of the system was completed on December 29, 2020 just a few days short of the December 31 deadline set by the Congress.
The European Train Control System (ETCS) is a signaling and control component of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). It is a type of rail control system like the PTC in the US. ETCS requires each train to be fitted with a number of interlinked onboard systems allowing the driver to monitor the position of the train and interact with the ETCS system as well as to receive information from Movement Authorities.
