Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said on Friday that Indian Railways has started Kavach 4.0 on Palwal-Mathura-Nagda section on Delhi-Mumbai route and Howrah-Bardhaman section on Delhi-Howrah route. The track-side Kavach system has been deployed on 15,512 route km, which includes all Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal, high-congestion networks and selected routes of the Railways.
Kavach 4.0 includes features like more accurate location information, better signal information in larger yards, station to station connection over OFC (fibre cable) and direct connectivity with electronic interlocking systems to enhance passenger safety.
railway cover
RDSO had approved it on 16 July 2024. Kavach version 4.0 includes all the special features required for different railway networks. Major improvements have been made in version 4.0. Such as increased accuracy of location, better signal clarity over large yards, station-to-station armor connection over OFC and direct connectivity with existing electronic interlocking systems. With these improvements, Railways plans to use Kavach 4.0 on a large scale across the network.
Armor cost and training
Answering a question in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session of Parliament, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the cost of installing the armor is about Rs 50 lakh per kilometer including station machines and trackside equipment. The cost of installing armor on the locomotive (engine) is approximately Rs 80 lakh per engine.
The Union Minister said that special training centers have been created to provide training to all the officers and employees associated with the armour. He said that till now more than 40,000 technicians, operators and engineers have been given training on Kavach system. These include 30,000 loco pilots and assistant loco pilots. The courses have been prepared with the help of IRISET. Till October 2025, Rs 2,354.36 crore has been spent on armor related works. A budget of Rs 1,673.19 crore has been kept for the year 2025-26. It has been told in the release that according to the progress of the work, more money will be given if needed.