INDIA: Indian Railways’ Kavach rollout has reached 2,633 route km on the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors as the railway’s FY2026-27 safety allocation rises to Rs 1,20,389 crore.

Kavach driver-machine interface on a Vande Bharat trainset driver’s desk
Kavach/TCAS driver-machine interface on a Vande Bharat trainset driver’s desk. Illustrative photo. Photo: GKP07, CC0 1.0.

Kavach moves into a larger deployment phase

The latest budget and deployment data show Kavach Version 4.0 commissioned on 2,633 route km as of July 31, 2026. Trackside implementation is under way across another 21,794 route km covering the Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal, High Density Network and other identified routes.

The Automatic Train Protection system assists loco pilots by applying brakes automatically when prescribed speed limits are not observed. Version 4.0, approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation in July 2024, adds improved location accuracy, better signalling information in large yards, optical-fibre station-to-station communication and direct integration with electronic interlocking.

The infrastructure already installed illustrates the scale of the programme: 11,547 km of optical fibre cable, 1,721 telecom towers and Station Data Centres at 1,009 stations. Trackside equipment has been completed on 7,726 route km, while 6,290 locomotives have been equipped with Kavach.

An official March 2026 Ministry of Railways review set out a planned acceleration beyond the current programme. The ministry said it was planning to expand the Kavach network by about 9,000 route km over two years and then expected deployment to grow by up to 10,000 route km per year. Those figures are rollout targets rather than commissioned mileage.

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Onboard installation extends to thousands more vehicles

Work is now progressing to install Kavach on another 7,190 locomotives and 1,200 EMU/MEMU coaches. Earlier procurement details provide more visibility into how the onboard programme has been structured.

In a February 2026 parliamentary reply, the Ministry of Railways said a tender had been finalised for equipping 6,300 electric locomotives with Kavach Version 4.0, while another tender covering 2,679 diesel locomotives was under finalisation. The disclosure shows that the large onboard programme was being divided by traction type, although it does not establish the current award status of every unit in the August deployment figures.

Indian Railways had spent Rs 3,875 crore on Kavach implementation through June 2026, with Rs 2,066 crore allocated to the programme in FY2026-27. The current update does not provide one completion date for the full 21,794-route-km trackside programme or for all remaining onboard installations, leaving commissioning pace as the key next measure of progress.

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