Though the record of safety of trains traversing the vast spreads across the country is not at all bad but undeniably there is much more to achieve to ensure that train travel becomes incident-free as far as boogies chugging thousands of kilometers of stretches from north to south and east to west is concerned.
In this regard the commitment of the concerned ministry is of the highest order as the same has been engaged in improving things at the war footing to make accidents, collisions, etc things of the past. In the same context, the concerned quarters have deputed Italian certification and inspection service provider ItalCertifer for conducting an independent safety assessment of the Kavach system installed between the Mathura and Palwal sections in the Agra Rail Division.
It is pertinent to mention that the Kavach is an anti-train collision system that can apply the brakes automatically in case of an emergency when the driver fails to act.
Reportedly, the assessment started on March 19 and went on till March 23, with a train set that had a high-speed engine and 10 LHB coaches. As the inspection work has been accomplished by ItalCertifer, which is one of the safety assessors on the panel of the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO). It is likely that the report of the inspection would be released in a month's time recommending corrective actions, if required.
Kavach not only helps loco pilots avoid signal passing at danger and over-speeding, but also helps in train running during inclement weather such as dense fog, leading to enhanced safety and efficiency of train operations.
Beyond any doubt, the aforesaid safety system shall revolutionize the rail transport in the coming times but more has to be done as rail safety is one of the top priorities in the country because this mode of transport holds supremacy in ferrying the highest number of passengers across the vast stretches of India with high levels of reliability and comfort. Though there are many countries in the world which offer higher speeds and state of the art edifice as far as train travel is concerned, India has also started working on those lines to achieve new goals in the field with Kavach and Vande Bharat series of trains showing its desire to achieve goals as fast as possible.
