In a significant boost to passenger safety, the Eastern Railway is aiming to equip the Kavach system in its rolling stock of local EMU and MEMU trains in around 10 months time.
As informed by the general manager of the ER, Milind Deouskar during a Press meet today, work on introduction of the Kavach system is being carried out extensively with the zonal railway aiming for trial runs from Howrah to the bordering station of Dhanbad by end of the ongoing financial year. For this, apart from installation of the system, an all round preparations are being done in full swing to take up the trials in the next few months.
As elaborated by the GM, as a part of the preparations, the ER is now working on installing the latest version of the Kavach system in the selected stretch. “Earlier we were ready for kavach 3.2. Then we converted to kavach 4.0,” informed Mr Deouskar. “As a matter of fact, provisions for providing all the locomotives have been placed. We would be able to provide kavach on all the EMUs and MEMUs in the next nine to ten months,” he added.
According to the general manager, the zonal railway is presently planning to install the advanced safety feature in the local EMUs being run on the Chord Line. Considering the fact, the Eastern Railway is mulling over plans to provide 86 rakes with the kavach feature in the next few months.
Elaborating on the trials for the safety system, Mr Deouskar pointed out, “Up to Burdwan we have already started the tests. Passenger trials on Howrah-Burdwan section was recently conducted on 5 Janaury. Trials on the Burdwan-Chhota Ambana section are expected to be carried out by March.”
Talking about the remaining stretch, the GM said, “Kavach has been sanctioned for the entire Eastern Railway except a stretch of 500 km. We have sent a proposal to the Railway Board for that stretch also and it is expected to be sanctioned. The preparatory works are also at an advanced stage.”