Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has tripled expenditure on safety over the last decade, from Rs 39,200 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1,17,000 crore in 2025-26, prioritising passenger safety amid modernisation, the Parliament was informed. “Safety is accorded the highest priority on Indian Railways. As a consequence of various safety measures taken over the years, there has been a steep decline in the number of accidents,” Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply to questions in the Rajya Sabha.
The indigenously developed hi-tech Kavach Automatic Train Protection (ATP), which requires safety certification of the highest order (SIL-4), has been installed along large sections of the Indian Railways network after successful field trials were carried out in 2016. Kavach aids the loco pilot in running trains within specified speed limits by automatically applying brakes in case the loco pilot fails to do so, and also helps to run trains safely during inclement weather.
The funds utilised on Kavach works so far, up to Dec 2025, are Rs 2,573.36 crore. The allocation of funds during the year 2025-26 is Rs 1,673.19 crore. Requisite funds are made available as per the progress of works, the minister said. Based on the deployment of Kavach version 3.2 on 1465 route km on South Central Railway and experience gained, further improvements were made. Finally, the Kavach specification version 4.0 was approved by RDSO in July 2024.
Kavach version 4.0 covers all the major features required for the diverse railway network. This is a significant milestone in safety for Indian Railways. Within a short period, IR has developed, tested and started deploying the Automatic Train Protection System, the minister said.