New Delhi: The Indian Railways Performance Highlight report has noted that the railways has not commissioned any new lines with its safety system Kavach till October this year. In the April–October period last year, 10 km of such lines were commissioned, according to The Hindu Business Line.
“Commissioning of Kavach is Nil till October 31, compare(d) to 10 km last fiscal during same period and against the target of 637 km till Oct 31, 2023,” the performance report noted.
Kavach is an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system created by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO).
While no lines under Kavach were commissioned, “the new line setting up was 186.65 km, the doubling of lines was 1019.69 km, and gauge conversion (from narrow to broad gauge) was 96 km. A cumulative of 1302.34 km was covered till Oct-end, at least 25 per cent-odd lesser than last year (across these categories) which covered 1728.55 km ( that included new line laying of 52.8 kms, gauge conversion across 102 km, and double lining: 1573.75 km),” according to the newspaper.
“It is cause of concern in view of additional expenditure on this account during the same period and less commissioning,” the railways’ report noted.
The same reported also noted that there was an increase in consequential accidents across the Indian Railways’ network in 2021-22, compared to the previous year. According to official data, nine were killed in train accidents in 2021-22 and 45 were injured. No loss of life or injuries were reported in 2020-21.