Indian Railways has approved a Rs 223 crore plan to install Kavach 4.0 train safety technology across 614.75 route km in the Varanasi Division.

The money will go on equipment, not new tracks or stations. The work covers stretches of existing line in North Eastern Railway’s Varanasi Division that do not have Kavach yet.

Teams will connect the new system to the signals and train equipment already in place. Kavach is an automatic train protection system developed in India.

It keeps watching a train’s movement and the signals ahead. If a driver misses a stop signal, it can apply the brakes on its own.

Railway staff call that lapse a ‘signal passing at danger’. Kavach can also step in when a train is heading into another risky situation and the crew has not acted.

The plan covers many stretches, including Ghazipur City to Tarighat (8.7 km), Hathua to Panch Deori (31.1 km), Aunrihar to Jaunpur, Mau to Shahganj and Chhapra Gramin to Khairah.

Once installed, Kavach will work alongside the existing signals and safety checks. The approval follows fresh progress elsewhere.

On 19 and 20 September, Central Railways Solapur Division ran the zone’s first independent safety audit trial of Kavach 4.0.

The test took place on the Kurduvadi to Boribial section, a stretch of more than 100 route km.

An assessor team from Italy checked how the system handled real running conditions, including stopping a train that passes a red signal.

The team also tested automatic whistling at level crossing gates. Along the section, crews had fitted 1,430 small tracking tags to guide the system.

For people who travel on these routes, the Varanasi project adds an extra layer of protection across a large part of the division’s network.

It is one piece of a wider plan to bring Kavach to more routes across the country. The announcement does not mention a completion date.

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