KAVACH could not have prevented Odisha triple train tragedy: Railway board

KAVACH could not have prevented the Odisha triple train accident, railway board spokesperson Jaya Verma said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon. Asked if sabotage could be ruled out, she said nothing could be ruled out. The railways board further said that the number of people who died in the accident was 275 and not 288 as reported earlier. The overcounting happened because some bodies got counted twice. 

On June 2, India saw one of the worst train accidents in almost two decades. Following the accident, many asked if KAVACH was active on the line and if it was, then how could the collisions have taken place. KAVACH is an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system developed indigenously by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO). 

The root cause of the three-train crash in Odisha's Balasore district has been identified and the Railways is aiming to restore normal services on the affected tracks by Wednesday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said speaking to reporters Sunday.

Talking to reporters at the accident site, he said the issue is of electric point machine, a vital device for railway signalling, and electronic interlocking.

The change that was made to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified, Vaishnaw said while denying that the incident had anything to do with the anti-collision system "Kavach".

What is Kavach?

KAVACH system is a state-of-the-art electronic system which was developed to help the Indian Railways achieve zero accidents. It is designed to assist locomotive pilots avoid Signal Passing At Danger (SPAD) and overspeeding while also providing support for train operations during adverse weather conditions such as dense fog. By automatically applying brakes when necessary, the system ensures better control over train speed and prevents potential accidents.

It is a Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technology with the probability of an error being one in 10,000 years.

Features of Kavach

• Prevention of Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD)

• Continuous update of Movement Authority with a display of signal aspects in Driver Machine Interface (DMI) / Loco Pilot operation cum Indication Panel (LPOCIP)

• Automatic Braking for the Prevention of Over Speeding

• Auto Whistling while approaching Level Crossing Gates

• Prevention of collision between two Locomotives equipped with functional KAVACH

• SoS Messages during emergency situations

• Centralised live monitoring of Train movements through a Network Monitor System.

(With inputs from PTI)