Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Vadodara–Nagda Section

With this commissioning, Kavach has been installed on 559.5 route kilometres out of 693 route kilometres identified on the Mumbai–New Delhi main corridor under Mission Raftaar, covering the majority of the route.

On the Vadodara–Nagda section the system has been commissioned over 224.51 route kilometres, comprising Vadodara to Mangal Mahudi at 122.5 route kilometres and Panchpipliya to Nagda at 102.01 route kilometres, while work on the remaining Mangal Mahudi–Panchpipliya section is in progress and expected to be completed soon with automatic signalling. During the financial year 2025–26 Western Railway commissioned Kavach over 659.5 route kilometres. The Vadodara Division had earlier operationalised the system on the Vadodara–Virar section in January 2026 and deployment has been extended up to Nagda via Godhra.

Kavach is an advanced train protection system designed to reduce human error and to act as an additional safety layer to prevent accidents caused by Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD). The project required detailed planning for each station and each absolute and automatic signalling section and involved programming and installing over 6,000 RFID tags along the tracks. Locomotives were equipped with Kavach devices and full trials and testing were completed.

Continuous radio communication was established covering 26 stations and 13 block sections, supported by 39 radio towers and approximately 600 km of optical fibre cable (OFC) laid in both Up and Down directions. Kavach equipment was integrated with existing signalling at stations, block sections and level crossing gates. The system has been fitted to WAP-7, WAG-9 and WAP-5 locomotives, with 364 locomotives on Western Railway already equipped, and Western Railway said Kavach is a more cost-effective option compared to the European Train Control System and reaffirmed its commitment to adopting modern indigenous technologies to build a safe and future-ready railway network.