Indian Railways Approves ?170 Crore for Kavach 4.0 on Remaining 712 Rkm of Moradabad Division
Indian Railways approved ₹170 crore for deploying Kavach Version 4.0, the indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, on the remaining 712 route-kilometres of the Moradabad Division under Northern Railway
The sanctioned work covers trackside, locomotive, and station-side fitment required to bring the entire division under Kavach coverage
The approval is part of the wider phased national rollout of Kavach 4.0, the latest specification of the system, following earlier deployment of Version 3.2 on other sections
As of the most recent official figures, Kavach 4.0 has been commissioned on over 2,600 route-km nationally, with trackside implementation work taken up on a much larger network spanning the high-density and Golden Quadrilateral routes
Kavach Version 4.0 — What the Upgrade Changes
Kavach 4.0 is the latest Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) specification of India's indigenous Automatic Train Protection system, formally approved in July 2024 after operational experience from deploying the earlier Version 3.2 on about 1,465 route-km in the South Central Railway zone. The upgrade was designed around three stated goals: greater intelligence, cross-vendor interoperability, and scalability for pan-India deployment.
Key Details
- Version 4.0 improves location accuracy, signal-aspect information in larger yards, and adds a station-to-station Kavach interface over optical fibre cable, plus direct interfacing with existing Electronic Interlocking systems
- It ensures interoperability between locomotives and trackside equipment supplied by different vendors — a gap that had limited earlier versions, where equipment from one manufacturer could not always work with another's trackside kit
- Kavach 4.0 is certified to Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4), the highest internationally recognised safety-assurance grade for railway signalling, and is designed to support train speeds of up to 160 km/h
- Kavach was originally developed from 2011 onward under RDSO (as the Train Collision Avoidance System, TCAS), achieved SIL-4 certification in 2019, and was adopted as Indian Railways' National ATP System in July 2020
The Moradabad Division approval specifically deploys Version 4.0 — not an earlier version — meaning the newly-fitted 712 route-km will get the improved interoperability and yard-signal features rather than the older Version 3.2 specification used in earlier rollout phases.
Zonal and Divisional Structure of Indian Railways
Indian Railways is administratively organised into zones, each headed by a General Manager, which are further sub-divided into operating divisions headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM). This zone-division structure is the basic administrative unit at which infrastructure works — including safety-system rollouts like Kavach — are sanctioned, budgeted, and executed.
Key Details
- As of 2025, Indian Railways comprises 19 zones and around 74 operating divisions across the country (the count has grown in recent years with new zone/division creation, such as the addition of a Jammu division under Northern Railway)
- Moradabad Division, headquartered at Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), is one of the operating divisions under Northern Railway zone, which is itself headquartered at Delhi and is among the oldest and busiest zones, given its role connecting the National Capital Region to northern and western India
- Division-wise approvals (as with this Moradabad sanction) are the standard administrative unit through which Kavach coverage is extended, since fitment must be completed section-by-section for interoperable end-to-end coverage within a division
- Railway Budget allocations for safety works are typically approved at the zonal/divisional level following Railway Board sanction, with funding routed through mechanisms such as the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK), the dedicated railway safety fund created in 2017-18
Framing this as a "Moradabad Division, Northern Railway" approval tests whether students can place a specific news item within Indian Railways' zone-division administrative hierarchy, a recurring factual detail in Railways-related prelims questions.
Automatic Train Protection Worldwide — Kavach vs Global Standards
Automatic Train Protection systems are used internationally to prevent human-error-driven collisions and signal overruns; Kavach is India's SIL-4-certified indigenous entrant into this category, comparable in safety objective (though not identical in architecture) to Europe's ETCS (European Train Control System) and the United States' Positive Train Control (PTC).
Key Details
- ETCS Level 2 (used across much of the European Union under the broader ERTMS interoperability framework) communicates movement authorities to trains continuously via trackside radio and enforces them on-board, without relying on conventional trackside signals for the driver
- PTC, the US standard mandated by federal legislation, is largely GPS-based: the locomotive determines its own position using GPS corrected against an onboard track database, and acts as a safety overlay on top of existing signalling rather than replacing it
- Kavach, like ETCS Level 2, integrates with trackside interlocking and communicates via a mix of RFID tags on the track (for absolute position reference), GPS, and radio communication between locomotives and stations, with a SIL-4 safety rating
- India's approach of building an indigenous, lower-cost SIL-4 system (Kavach) rather than importing ETCS or PTC reflects both cost considerations, given India's much larger route network, and an "Atmanirbhar Bharat" push for domestic railway-safety technology
This bridge lets students place Kavach within the global family of ATP technologies for comparative-question purposes (a common prelims/mains framing: "Kavach is India's equivalent of which international system, and how does it differ?").
- Amount approved for Moradabad Division: ₹170 crore, for 712 route-km, Northern Railway
- Kavach 4.0 approved by RDSO: July 2024, following Version 3.2 deployment on about 1,465 route-km in South Central Railway
- Kavach 4.0 supports train speeds up to 160 km/h; certified to Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4)
- Kavach origin: development began 2011 (as TCAS) under RDSO; SIL-4 certification 2019; adopted as National ATP System July 2020
- National Kavach coverage (most recent figures): over 2,600 route-km commissioned, including large stretches of the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors
- Indian Railways structure: 19 zones and about 74 operating divisions (2025); Moradabad Division falls under Northern Railway, headquartered at Delhi
- Comparable global ATP systems: ETCS Level 2 (Europe, radio-based movement authority under ERTMS), Positive Train Control/PTC (United States, GPS-based overlay)