The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) will install Kavach 4.0, an Indigenous Automatic Train Protection (IATP) system that averts train collisions, along a stretch of around 2,000km in north Bengal and Assam.

K.K. Sharma, the chief public relations officer (CPRO) of the NFR, said: “Kavach will be installed along a distance of around 1,966km that stretches from Malda Town to Dibrugarh under the NFR. The move is to reduce collisions of trains.”

He said the latest version of the technology and the device, named Kavach 4.0, would also be installed in around 10,000 locos which haul passenger and goods trains across the country.

A senior railway official has pointed out that the Malda Town-Dibrugarh stretch is the principal train route connecting the Northeast and North Bengal with the rest of the country.

“Several important trains run along this route. It was pertinent to select this stretch to install the new system to reduce train collisions. The route is strategically important for the country,” the official said.

In north Bengal, a major train accident occurred in 1999 at Gaisal station when two long-distance trains collided head-on, killing at least 300 persons.

On June 17 this year, a goods train rammed into the rear of the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express close to Rangapani station near New Jalpaiguri (NJP). Ten people died in the accident and several suffered injuries.

Sources said on a pilot basis, Kavach 4.0 was installed along a 108km-long section between Kota and Sawai Madhopur stations under the West Central Railway zone. After it was tested and found to be effective, the railways decided to install it across the national railway network.

Sharma, the CPRO, while elaborating on the system that has been developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) that functions under the railway ministry, said it would prevent trains from passing the signal at “Danger (Red)” and thus avoid a collision.

“It activates the train braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train according to the speed restrictions. Kavach has been certified for the highest level of safety integrity level (SIL-4) by independent safety assessors. Itreduces the probability of train collisions in block sections and on running lines at stations,” he said.