Train passengers, a major safety upgrade is coming: Rs 170 crore approved for a project covering another 712 km of tracks

Indian Railways has approved the deployment of Kavach Version 4.0 across the remaining 712 route kilometres of Moradabad Division in Northern Railway at a total cost of Rs 170 crore.

The move is aimed at strengthening railway safety infrastructure through the rollout of the indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system.

Kavach 4.0 to strengthen railway safety

According to the Ministry of Railways, the deployment of Kavach 4.0 will add an advanced safety layer to train operations across the identified sections.


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Kavach is an indigenously developed ATP system designed to improve operational safety. It can help prevent Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD), automatically apply brakes when required, regulate train speed in critical situations and reduce the risk of collisions.

The latest approval is part of Indian Railways' wider plan to expand Kavach coverage and modernise signalling and train protection systems across the network.

Kavach 4.0 commissioned across 2,633 route km

Indian Railways had commissioned Kavach Version 4.0 across 2,633 route kilometres as of July 31, 2026, according to information provided by the government in the Lok Sabha.

The deployment includes:

• 1,423 route km on the Delhi-Mumbai corridor
• 1,210 route km on the Delhi-Howrah corridor

The government has said Kavach 4.0 is planned for large-scale deployment across Indian Railways.

Kavach work underway across 21,794 route km

Trackside Kavach implementation has been taken up across 21,794 route kilometres, covering the Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal, High Density Network and other identified sections.

The programme includes several infrastructure components required to operate the train protection system.

So far, Indian Railways has installed 11,547km of optical fibre cable, 1,721 telecom towers and station data centres at 1,009 stations.

Trackside equipment has been installed across 7,726 route kilometres, while Kavach systems have been fitted in 6,290 locomotives.

Work is also underway to equip another 7,190 locomotives and 1,200 EMU/MEMU trains with the system.

Indian Railways spends Rs 1.14 lakh crore in 2026-27

The latest Kavach approval comes as Indian Railways continues to invest heavily in safety, infrastructure and capacity expansion.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha that Indian Railways had spent Rs 1,14,973 crore by July 2026, against a total budget grant of Rs 2,93,030 crore for the 2026-27 financial year.

The expenditure represents around 39 per cent of the budget grant for the current financial year.

The government has also highlighted the expansion of Kavach as part of its broader efforts to strengthen railway safety and modernise train operations across India.


Inputs from agencies