Amidst renewed discussions over ‘Kavach’, the anti-collision device, following the Rangapani accident, a senior Railway official confirmed to News18 that the installation of Kavach in the North East Frontier (NF) railways began in May. According to the official, the railways conducted surveys across divisions and zones for the installation of Kavach devices. The collision between a goods train and Kanchanjunga Express in Rangapani left at least nine people dead on Monday.
In May, the North East Frontier (NF) railways, in an official communication, said, “High Density Network (HDN) and Highly Used Network (HUN) routes over N. F. Railway has been identified for implementation of Kavach. This indigenously developed train protection system has been planned to be commissioned in around 1966 Route Kilometre of length up to Dibrugarh from Malda Town.”
“Kavach is meant to provide protection by preventing trains from passing the signal at Danger (Red) and avoiding collision. It activates the train braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions,” added the note.
“In addition, it prevents collisions between two Locomotives equipped with a functional Kavach system. Kavach is one of the cheapest, Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technologies with the probability of error is 1 in 10,000 years,” the communication further added.
News18 spoke with senior divisional regional managers of some divisions, who said that the Kavach, if installed, might have stopped such incidents. Moreover, there are some amendments made in the NF division in November 2023. In an official note, from the General Manager’s office, Maligaon, dated November 10, 2023 and titled – Amendment Slip No 49 – strict directions were issued for Loco Pilots in the region.
News18 has accessed the relevant documents mentioned.
Meanwhile, political blame game started over the installation of ‘Kavach’. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the ‘anti collision device’ was introduced by her when she was in charge of the ministry. She added that the current dispensation has made the Railways a ministry of ‘show off’ , and it does not take care of the passengers, officers and its engineers.
Safety Amendments for Loco Pilots in NF
The amendment slip said, “When encountering an automatic signal at “ON” aspect and after waiting for the prescribed time, Loco Pilot should proceed with great caution at a speed not exceeding 15 Kmph where visibility is good and not exceeding 10 kmph where visibility is not good until the next Stop signal, looking out for any possible obstruction and be prepared to stop short of the same.”
“While stopping at the Automatic signal at ‘ON”, the Loco Pilot should bring his train to a stop as close as possible to the rear of the signal so as to provide sufficient margin for a following train (driven cautiously) to stop clear of the train ahead. In thick foggy weather, the Loco Pilot shall stop his train in the rear of the proceeding train in such a way that the tail lamp of the proceeding train is visible.”
However, these protocols were allegedly violated in Rangapani, said a senior Railway officer. Quoting the gateman and other concerned officers, he said that the Loco Pilot was running the train at around 40 to 44 Kmph. “We have to wait for the safety commissioner’s report, but there are clear signs of violation and human errors. The signals were disregarded.”
Reacting to the incident, Jaya Varma Sinha, chairman & CEO of Railway Board, said that the crash happened due to a ‘signal disregard’.
15th Standing Committee Report on ‘Kavach’
The 15th Railway Standing Committee report, presented before Parliament in August, two months after the Balasore incident, emphasized the necessity of Kavach and urged the government to allocate funds.
The standing committee, led by senior BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh in its 15th report said, “Noting that the normal train operations have been restored and an encouraging trend in freight and revenue receipts have increased, the Committee desires that the efforts be now made to start contributing funds to RRSK (Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh) so that the objectives of the extended currency of RRSK for the next five years are achieved and “Safety First and Safety Always” motto could be accomplished.”
“The Committee would like to suggest to the Ministry to arrange funds from RRSK for providing indigenously designed train collision avoidance system Kavach in the entire rail network at the earliest for the safety of the railways and passengers,” the committee stated in its recommendation.
The report also elaborated on the funds. “According to the Ministry, safety has been accorded highest priority and to achieve the objective of Mission Zero Accident till 2021-22, an expenditure of Rs 74,444.18 cr has been incurred from Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) which consisted of Rs 70,000 cr from GBS and Rs 4,444.18 cr from Internal Resources,” said the report.
“The Ministry has pleaded that the Railways could not contribute the intended funds to RRSK due to an inadequate resource generation and non-availability of surplus funds for being deployed towards CAPEX (capital expenditure),” it further added.
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