In a major step towards strengthening railway safety, Indian Railways has approved the installation of Kavach on the balance Broad Gauge sections of the Ambala Division of Northern Railway. The project covers 811 route kilometres and has been sanctioned at a cost of ₹201 crore. The work has been approved under the umbrella programme for the provision of Kavach with LTE-based communication backbone on balance routes of Indian Railways.

The sanctioned work will cover important rail routes in the Ambala Division, including Ambala Cantonment–Ludhiana, Kalka–Chandigarh–New Morinda–Sahnewal, Sirhind–Daulatpur Chowk, Rajpura–Bathinda–Shri Ganganagar and Ludhiana–Dhuri–Jakhal sections.

These routes serve as key rail corridors connecting the states of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. They handle substantial passenger and freight traffic and play an important role in the movement of people and goods across the region.

Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to enhance operational safety. It helps prevent Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD), automatically applies brakes when required to avert unsafe situations, controls train speed in critical conditions, and significantly reduces the risk of collisions.

Indian Railways is progressively expanding Kavach across its network as part of its ongoing efforts to improve safety, reliability and capacity on high-density and strategically important routes.

 ***

Dharmendra Tewari/ Dr. Nayan Solanki/ Ritu Raj/ Manik Sharma