Western Railway launches indigenous KAVACH train protection system on Vadodara–Surat–Virar section

MUMBAI: Western Railway on Thursday commissioned the indigenous train protection system, KAVACH, on the Vadodara–Surat–Virar section, enhancing safety on one of its busiest corridors.

The KAVACH project on Western Railway has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs3 97 crore. Work on the 344 km Vadodara–Surat–Virar section began in January 2023 and was commissioned on 30 January 2026, officials said. Earlier, the Vadodara–Ahmedabad section had been commissioned. With this, a total of 435 route km on Western Railway is now operational with the KAVACH system.


KAVACH is an advanced train protection system that adds an extra safety layer to reduce risks caused by human error. Its key features include preventing signal passing at danger, checking over-speeding, avoiding head-on and rear-end collisions, automatic whistling at level crossing gates, and repeating signal aspects inside the locomotive cab to help drivers during fog, poor visibility, or adverse weather conditions.

Officials said the system has been fully conceptualised, designed, and developed indigenously by Indian Railways in close collaboration with Indian industry. The technology is highly complex and significantly cheaper than comparable European systems such as ETCS.

Implementation on the Vadodara–Virar section involved multiple technical steps, including creating separate signalling schemes for each station and automatic signalling section, programming and installing over 8,000 RFID tags along the tracks, and planning continuous radio communication between stations and locomotives. Fifty-seven radio communication towers were installed, along with equipment at stations.

The work also included laying optical fibre cable along the route, installing KAVACH equipment at stations and level crossing gates, developing dedicated software for system operation, integrating it with the existing signalling system, fitting KAVACH on locomotives, and extensive trials before commissioning.

Currently, KAVACH is enabled on WAP-7 locomotives. On Western Railway, 364 locomotives have already been equipped with the system.

Additional General Manager Pradeep Kumar, present when a train fitted with KAVACH departed, said, “We have already fitted KAVACH in 300 locomotives, and work on the balance 200 locomotives will be completed within a year.”

Work on the Vadodara–Nagda section is progressing and is expected to be commissioned by March 2026, while the Virar–Mumbai Central section is targeted for completion by September 2026. Overall, KAVACH works covering 2,667 route km have been sanctioned on Western Railway at a cost of Rs1,435 crore, with proposals for a further 2,476 route km under consideration.