Where is the railway security system ‘Kavach’? Opposition’s question to Railway Minister, why are railway accidents not stopping?

The wounds of the horrific Balasore train accident in Odisha were not yet healed when yesterday in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, a freight train hit the Kanchenjunga Express from behind due to which four of its coaches derailed and at least 15 people died and 60 people were injured. In such a situation, once again questions are being raised on the security system of the railways. People are angry and the Railway Minister is being asked where is the security system shield about which big claims have been made.

It should be noted that train accidents in India have become common now which is a matter of great concern. Because most of the passengers in India travel by rail, but these accidents tell that the railways do not care about their safety because if it had, the railways would have definitely taken strict action after Balasore and yesterday’s Darjeeling accident and loss of life and property would not have been seen.

Reasons for previous train accidents

• It should be noted that in most of the accidents in the last few years, train derailment has been a major reason. Talking about the figures,
• 59 accidents occurred in 2018-19, in which 46 trains were derailed.
• There have been 6 incidents of fire in trains.
• At the same time, in the year 2022-23, 48 rail accidents occurred, in which 6 were caused by collision and 36 train incidents occurred due to derailment.

Opposition’s direct question to Railway Minister

In such a situation, now the opposition is asking direct questions to the Railway Minister and that video is also being targeted in which Railway Minister Ashwini Kumar had said that the Railways is planning to equip the Delhi-Guwahati route with a security system as part of its target to cover more than 6000 km of track next year. In the last few years, whenever there have been rail accidents in India, the armor system comes into discussions every time.

What is armor system?

• Let us tell you that the armor system designed to prevent collision is an automatic train protection system, which was developed by Research Design and Standards Organization in India and other Indian firms.
• In this, if the driver fails to apply brakes at the designated place, then the Kavach controls the speed of the train.
• It identifies danger signs on the track.
• The Kavach gets activated when the train driver breaks the signal.
• It helps in running the train in areas with low visibility.
• According to the information received, tenders have been issued for Kavach system on 10 thousand kilometer route so far.
• At present, Kavach system is installed on 1500 kilometer route only.
• This year Kavach system will be installed on 3 thousand kilometer route.