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US Vice President JD Vance and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will meet with oil industry leaders. The administration plans to announce measures to lower gas prices. These include releasing oil from emergency reserves and easing shipping regulations
Milk has long been a cornerstone of Indian diets, simple, familiar, and deeply rooted in tradition. But in urban India, that narrative is rapidly evolving. Today’s consumers are no longer satisfied with just a glass of milk; they are seeking products that align with their fast-paced lifestyles
On March 14, the Narendra Modi government announced that it had decided to end Ladakhi climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s detention under the National Security Act – nearly six months after his arrest. The Union home ministry is not known to have made such a concession for any detainee held
Railways misses second ‘Kavach’ deadline on Mumbai-Delhi-Kolkata route, eyes 2026
Railways misses second ‘Kavach’ deadline on Mumbai-Delhi-Kolkata route, eyes 2026
Having missed the second deadline of December 2025, the Railways is now hopeful of operationalising the automatic train protection system, Kavach, on routes connecting the national capital with Mumbai and Howrah sometime in 2026, with steady progress and an aggressive approach, officials said.
Kavach is an indigenously developed, highly technology-intensive system that helps loco pilots maintain specified speed limits by automatically applying brakes if the drive fails to do so.
According to the officials, around 25% work on these routes has been commissioned and is in ready-to-use condition, while major components for the remaining 75% have already been installed.
"We are doing our level best to operationalise Kavach on the Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata routes, hoping to achieve it in 2026," officials said.
The Railway Ministry on August 7, 2024, said that work to install Kavach would be completed on the said routes by March 2025. It announced the extension of the deadline from March to December 2025 on February 1, 2025, in a budget document titled 'Railways estimates for Revised Estimates 2024-25 and Budget Estimates 2025-26'.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw provided an update on the progress of Kavach installation on December 17 in the Lok Sabha when the Congress MP Mallu Ravi asked the specific reasons for the revised deadline of December 2025 for the installation of 'Kavach' 4.0 on the high-density Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes and the percentage of this work completed as of November 1, 2025.
"After extensive and elaborate trials, Kavach Version 4.0 has been successfully commissioned on 738 route km (RKm), including the Palwal-Mathura-Nagda section (633 Rkm) on Delhi-Mumbai route and the Howrah-Bardhaman section (105 Rkm) on Delhi-Howrah route," Vaishnaw said.
He added, "Kavach implementation has been taken up in balance sections of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors." Updating the Lower House on the progress of Kavach components on the high-density routes, including Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors, the Minister said, “Optical fibre cable has been laid along 7,129 km with the installation of 800 telecom towers.”
He added that other Kavach components, such as Station Kavach, have been installed at 860 stations, track-side equipment on 5,672 route km and Loco Kavach on 4,154 locomotives.
Experts said that with a significant increase in train operations over the years, loco pilots need technical aids to minimise the risk of human error.
The first field trials of Kavach on the passenger trains were started in February 2016, and in July 2020, it was adopted as the National ATP system.
The Ministry claimed that it conducted a trial of the Kavach 3.2 version on the 1,465 route on South Central Railway and used the experience to launch the 4.0 version on July 16, 2024.
"Kavach 4.0 covers all the major features required for the diverse railway network. This is a significant milestone in safety for Indian Railways. Within a short period, Indian Railways has developed, tested and started deploying the Automatic Train Protection System," Vaishnaw said in the Lok Sabha.
He added that track-side Kavach implementation work has been taken up on 15,512 route km covering all Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), Golden Diagonal (GD), and High Density Network (HDN) and identified sections of Indian Railways.
The Minister also stated that bids have been invited for equipping another 9,069 locomotives with Kavach 4.0, as it has been progressively done in a phased manner in locomotives.
Highlighting the challenges, officials said that initially, there were only three companies approved to install Kavach on the Indian Railways network, but now many new companies are in the process of getting approval.
"The number of companies approved to install Kavach is now over five, and we are hoping that in 2026 it may cross 20. Indian Railways needs more than 50 original equipment manufacturers to expedite the installation process, as the broad-gauge network is 78,000 km long and will continue to expand with new areas being added to the rail network," officials said.
Published - December 27, 2025 08:26 pm IST
Source: TheHindu
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