Prayagraj, 04 June (HS): The Signal and Telecommunications

Department of North Central Railway has achieved a truly glorious and landmark

milestone in the history of Indian Railways. Under the visionary and able

leadership of Naresh Pal Singh, General Manager, North Central Railway, and the

technical guidance of Satendra Singh, Principal Chief Signal and

Telecommunications Engineer, the state-of-the-art Automatic Train Protection

System 'Kavach' Version 4.0 (TCAS) has been successfully commissioned for the

first time in the country, with an operating speed of 160 kmph, on the Chipyana

Buzurg - Tundla section (175 route kilometers). With this historic

commissioning, the total Kavach Version 4.0 network on North Central Railway has

now reached a massive 445 route kilometers. This historic test was conducted on

the Kanpur Shatabdi Express (train numbers 12033 Up and 12034 Down), equipped

with the 'Kernex' make Kavach system.

Expressing happiness over this unprecedented success, General

Manager Naresh Pal Singh congratulated the entire technical team and called it

a revolutionary milestone towards 'Mission Raftar'. From a technical

standpoint, the Chipyana Buzurg (excluding) – Tundla (excluding) section has

now become the only section on the entire Indian Railways network with several

unique achievements, including the full operationalization of 'Kavach' Version

4.0 (Kernex make) at a high speed of 160 kmph. In another technological

breakthrough, Kavach has been successfully integrated with the Hitachi

Electronic Interlocking system through protocol converters for the first time,

ensuring flawless integration of the entire track and signaling infrastructure

through EIPC and LC TCAS systems. It is noteworthy that this is the same historic

rail section where Kernex has also received its official 'generic approval' for

Version 4.0 for high-speed operation at 160 kmph.

To implement this state-of-the-art security cover, the North

Central Railway team established a massive and comprehensive infrastructure

across 175 route km. This included the installation of 22 STCAs and 9 LC TCAS

stationary cover units, and the complete equipping of 10 WAP-7 locomotives with

the system. Additionally, over 4,500 RFID tags were precisely installed on the

tracks, nine new 40-meter-high towers were constructed to strengthen

communication, and a robust 48-core fiber optic cable backbone was laid.

Before final commissioning, the entire system underwent

rigorous and extensive safety testing by the Research Design and Standards

Organization, North Central Railway's core team, and the Independent Safety

Assessor (ISA), Italcertifier. These tests included successfully completing

over 10,000 kilometers of No-BIU test runs. Additionally, over 180 speed

prevention and loop-line speed control tests were conducted to prevent signal

disregard. To ensure train safety in adverse conditions, head-on and rear-end

collision resistance tests were 100% successful. The system has been

extensively tested on LHB coaches, light locomotives, and WAP-7 and WAP-5

locomotives from prestigious trains such as the Vande Bharat, Shatabdi, and

Shramshakti Express.

Under the able guidance of Principal Chief Signal and

Telecommunications Engineer (PCSTE), Satendra Kumar, the Chief Signal and Telecommunications

Engineer (Project/Coordination), Chief Signal Engineer (CSE), Chief

Telecommunications Engineer (CCE), and the dedicated team of Prayagraj Division

and the Headquarters Drawing Team worked day and night to achieve this feat. On

the ground, the work was completed under the leadership of Deputy Chief Signal

and Telecommunications Engineer/Tundla and Deputy Chief Signal and

Telecommunications Engineer/P/Aligarh. This achievement, which takes safety and

speed to new heights on the country's most important Delhi-Howrah main railway

line, is a moment of immense pride for the entire railway family.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi