Despite rising number of accidents, Kavach work still on the slow track
The Hindu
Kanchanjunga express accident: The accident involving the Sealdah Kanchanjunga Express on June 17, which claimed 10 lives, has brought to the fore once again.
The accident involving the Sealdah Kanchanjunga Express on June 17, which claimed 10 lives, has brought to the fore once again the delay in installing Kavach, an indigenously developed automatic train protection (ATP) system, across the country’s rail network.
Experts, including former Railway Minister and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, raised questions about the delay in the implementation of the system. She said safety of passengers is no longer a priority of the Railways. Kavach aids the loco pilot in trains running within specified speed limits by automatic application of brakes in case the pilot fails to do so.
On Monday, a goods train hit the Kanchanjunga Express between Rangapani and Chatterhat in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district, derailing four coaches of the passenger train and five wagons of the goods train. At a press conference hours after the accident, Railway Board chairperson Jaya Varma Sinha said ‘prima facie’ the accident was due to a ‘human error’. To reduce this, Kavach is being planned by the Ministry on mission mode, she said.
Asked about the implementation of the system in West Bengal and the Northeast, the chairperson said it was in the planning stage. She said installation of Kavach along the Howrah-Delhi route will be completed this year and in the Northeast Frontier Railway section in the next phase.
Last December, responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that Kavach had been deployed on 1,465 km and in 139 locomotives, including Electric Multiple Unit rakes, in South Central Railway.
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“Presently, Kavach tenders have been awarded for Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors (approximately 3,000 km) and work is in progress on these routes,” the Minister had said in response to a question by MPs Benny Behanan and Kumbakudi Sudhakaran.
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