Indian Railways has invited bids for the installation of the Kavach system, its indigenous automatic train protection technology, for 14735 route kilometres including Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-Chennai section.

Out of the total 14,735 route kilometres, bids have been opened for the installation on 1,105 km, with the remaining bids set to be opened on November 24, 2024.

Additionally, Indian Railways has invited tenders for the installation of Kavach systems on 10,000 locomotives, with the financial bids currently under evaluation after being opened on November 4, 2024. The target completion date for both the trackside and locomotive installations is set for November 24, 2024.

The Kavach system rollout is progressing steadily. Installation work has already begun on the Mumbai-Delhi route, which is currently in its advanced stages.

In 2024-25, Indian Railways has sanctioned the work of installation of the Kavach system on over 30,000 route Out of this, bids for over 14,000 route kilometres have been invited.

Indian Railways has also planned to invite bids for an additional 17,000 route kilometres in 2025-26, with further expansions of up to 30,000 route kilometres planned for 2026-28.

According to an official, Kavach, which is developed in ten years , has evolved with the release of Version 4.0. This new iteration was approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in July 2024 and is already operational on the 108 km section between Kota and Sawai Madhopur, with trials also underway on the 84 km Ahmedabad-Vadodara section.

The indigenous Kavach system was officially declared as India’s National ATP system in July 2020 and, by March 2022, was successfully installed on additional 1,200 route kilometres. Currently 1,548 route kilometres of Indian railway equipped with Kavach.

"The ambitious roll-out of Kavach is a key part of Indian Railways' efforts to enhance safety, reduce accidents, and modernize its rail network ahead of the 2030 target of deployment of the Kavach on almost major routes of Indian railway" said an official.