NEW DELHI, India — Indian Railways has nearly tripled its spending on safety over the past 10 years, raising annual expenditure from Rs 39,200 crore in 2013–14 to Rs 1,17,693 crore in 2025–26, as part of a broader push to modernize the national rail network and reduce accidents, Parliament was informed.
“Safety is accorded the highest priority on Indian Railways. As a consequence of various safety measures taken over the years, there has been a steep decline in the number of accidents,” Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written response to questions in the Rajya Sabha.
A central component of the safety drive is the indigenously developed Kavach Automatic Train Protection system, which meets the highest safety integrity standards and is designed to prevent overspeeding and signal violations. The system automatically applies brakes if a locomotive pilot fails to act and is intended to improve operations during adverse weather conditions.
Indian Railways has spent Rs 2,573.36 crore on Kavach installations through December 2025, with an additional Rs 1,673.19 crore allocated for the 2025–26 fiscal year. The minister said funding is released in line with project progress.
After initial field trials in 2016 and deployment of earlier versions on limited routes, Indian Railways approved Kavach version 4.0 in July 2024 following further refinements based on operational experience. The latest version incorporates features required to operate across the country’s diverse rail network.
Kavach version 4.0 has now been commissioned on 1,297 route kilometers, including major high-density corridors on the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah routes. On the Delhi–Mumbai corridor, the system is operational on the Junction Cabin–Palwal–Mathura–Nagda section and the Ahmedabad–Vadodara–Virar section. On the Delhi–Howrah route, it covers the Gaya–Saramatanr and Bardhaman–Howrah sections.
In addition, trackside Kavach installation work is underway across 23,360 route kilometers covering key sections of the network.
To support large-scale deployment, Indian Railways has rolled out specialized training programs at its centralized institutes. More than 48,000 personnel have already been trained on Kavach technology, including about 45,000 locomotive pilots and assistant locomotive pilots. The training curriculum has been developed in collaboration with railway signaling and telecommunications institutes.
The cost of installing trackside and station Kavach equipment is estimated at approximately Rs 50 lakh per kilometer, while fitting Kavach systems on locomotives costs about Rs 80 lakh per locomotive.
Beyond train protection systems, Indian Railways has also expanded the installation of CCTV cameras in coaches and locomotives to enhance passenger safety and security. Officials say the cameras are expected to deter vandalism, theft, and other criminal activity, while also aiding investigations.
So far, about 12,300 coaches — including all operational Vande Bharat and Amrit Bharat train sets — and 460 locomotives across the network have been equipped with CCTV cameras, the minister said. (Source: IANS)
