New Delhi, Sep 1: Indian Railways has approved Rs 170 crore for the deployment of Kavach Version 4.0 across the remaining 712 route kilometres of the Moradabad Division under Northern Railway, giving a fresh push to the expansion of India’s indigenous train protection technology.
The project will strengthen safety infrastructure across the division by installing Kavach, an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to support safer train operations and reduce the risk of accidents.
Kavach can automatically apply brakes when required, control train speeds in critical situations and help prevent trains from passing signals at danger. The system is also designed to reduce the possibility of collisions by providing an additional safety mechanism during train operations.
The latest approval is part of Indian Railways’ larger plan to expand Kavach coverage across key railway routes and upgrade the country’s signalling and train-protection infrastructure.
As of July 31, 2026, Kavach 4.0 had been commissioned across 2,633 route kilometres. Of this, 1,423 route kilometres are on the Delhi-Mumbai corridor and 1,210 route kilometres are on the Delhi-Howrah corridor.
Indian Railways has planned trackside deployment of Kavach across 21,794 route kilometres covering the Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal, High Density Network and other identified sections.
The programme involves a large technology and infrastructure network. Around 11,547 kilometres of optical fibre cable have been installed, along with 1,721 telecom towers and station data centres at 1,009 stations.
Trackside equipment has been deployed across 7,726 route kilometres, while Kavach systems have been fitted on 6,290 locomotives. Work is also underway to install the system on another 7,190 locomotives and 1,200 EMU and MEMU trains.
The expansion is significant for India’s railway technology ecosystem as well. Wider deployment of the indigenous system is expected to support demand for signalling equipment, communication networks, onboard safety systems and related engineering services.
Indian Railways is simultaneously undertaking large-scale infrastructure modernisation. The railway ministry has reported expenditure of more than Rs 1.14 lakh crore up to July 2026 against a total budget allocation of Rs 2.93 lakh crore for the financial year.
The Rs 170-crore Moradabad project adds to this wider modernisation effort and strengthens the focus on technology-led railway safety.
With Kavach 4.0 being expanded across more routes, Indian Railways is moving towards a wider automated safety network aimed at improving train protection, operational reliability and the overall modernisation of railway infrastructure.