Indian Railways Approves ₹341 Crore Kavach Projects for Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Routes
Indigenous train protection system to cover 1,409 route km across Ahmedabad and Ambala divisions
Indian Railways is expanding the deployment of Kavach, its indigenous Automatic Train Protection system, across key rail corridors in Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh following the approval of projects worth ₹341 crore.
New Delhi: Indian Railways has approved two major Kavach projects worth ₹341 crore covering 1,409 route kilometres across the Ahmedabad Division of Western Railway and the Ambala Division of Northern Railway, further accelerating the nationwide rollout of the indigenous train protection system Kavach.
The projects, sanctioned under the umbrella programme for the provision of Kavach with an LTE-based communication backbone, aim to enhance operational safety, improve reliability and modernise train operations on some of the country’s important passenger and freight corridors.
In Gujarat, Indian Railways has approved the installation of Kavach Version 4.0 on 598 route kilometres covering 48 block sections of the Ahmedabad Division at a cost of ₹140 crore.
Railway officials said approximately 702 route kilometres in the division had already been sanctioned for Kavach deployment earlier. With the approval of the latest project, the remaining sections of the Ahmedabad Division will also come under the safety system, enabling near-complete coverage across the division.
In a separate approval, Indian Railways sanctioned a ₹201 crore project for the installation of Kavach on 811 route kilometres of broad-gauge routes in the Ambala Division of Northern Railway.
The project will cover several strategically important routes, including Ambala Cantonment–Ludhiana, Kalka–Chandigarh–New Morinda–Sahnewal, Sirhind–Daulatpur Chowk, Rajpura–Bathinda–Shri Ganganagar and Ludhiana–Dhuri–Jakhal sections.
These corridors connect Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and carry substantial passenger and freight traffic, making them critical to the region’s transportation network.
Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to significantly enhance railway safety by preventing Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD), automatically applying brakes in unsafe situations, controlling train speed in critical conditions and reducing the risk of collisions.
The technology continuously monitors train movements and provides an additional layer of protection for train operations by intervening automatically when safety protocols are breached.
Indian Railways has identified Kavach as a key pillar of its safety modernisation programme and is progressively expanding deployment across high-density and strategically important routes nationwide.
The latest approvals come amid a broader push by Indian Railways to adopt advanced signalling, communication and safety technologies to improve operational efficiency while ensuring safer journeys for passengers and freight services.
With the new sanctions, Kavach coverage is expected to expand significantly across western and northern India, strengthening safety on key rail corridors that support economic activity and regional connectivity.
