Why in news?

• At least 288 people were feared dead and several injured in a major rail accident in Balasore district of Odisha.
• The accident involved two express trains — Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express — and a goods train.
• As per a statement of the Railways, Odisha route did not have Kavach safety system – an Indian technology that could have prevented the collision.

What’s in today’s article?

• Odisha train accident
• Kavach

Odisha train accident

• Where and when did the accident happen?
  • The spot of the crash is a little before Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district, which is part of the Kharagpur railway division of South Eastern Railway.
  • Three trains were involved — two passenger trains going in opposite directions, and a goods train that was stationary.
• How are the tracks laid out at Bahanaga Bazar?
  • 
  • There is the Up Main Line (towards Chennai), the Down Main line (towards Howrah), and two loop lines on the two sides.
  • The purpose of a loop is to park a train on the side so that the main line is left clear for a faster or more important train.
  • As the Coromandel approached, the loop line was occupied by a goods train going in the same (Up) direction.
    • The Coromandel was supposed to go past it on the main line.
• What went wrong?
• As per the official brief, Coromandel express, instead of going past the goods train on the main line, entered the loop and smashed into the goods train from the rear.
• How could that happen?
  • Locomotive drivers are guided by signals, not so much by what they see on the tracks, especially in the dark.
  • While details will be known after the inquiry, the Railways are looking at the possibility of a signalling error.
    • A multi-disciplinary joint inspection by supervisors has concluded that a green signal was given to the Coromandel to pass through on the designated main line, and then the signal was taken off.
    • The train entered the loop line, and rammed into the goods train.
• Where does the third train come into the picture?
  • At the same time as the Coromandel hit the goods train, a third train, Bengaluru-Howrah Express, was going past on the adjacent Down main line, headed towards Howrah.
  • Most of this train had already crossed the point of the accident when the Coromandel crashed into the goods train.
  • However, the last few coaches were impacted.
    • These derailed — either because they were hit by coaches of the Coromandel that toppled on to them, or because of the shock waves that could have passed through the ground and the tracks.

Kavach

• About
  • 
  • It is India’s very own automatic protection system in development since 2012, under the name Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
    • Later, it got rechristened to Kavach or “armour”.
  • Basically, Kavach is a state-of-the-art electronic system which was designed to help the Indian Railways achieve Zero Accidents.
• Development
  • It has been indigenously developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry.
  • Trails were facilitated by South Central Railway to achieve the corporate objective of safety in train operations.
• Functioning
  • A set of electronic devices and Radio Frequency Identification devices installed in locomotives, in the signalling system as well the track.
  • This enables the locomotives, signalling system and tracks to talk to each other using ultra high radio frequencies to control the brakes of trains and also alert drivers.
• Features
  • It activates the train braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions.
  • In addition, it prevents collision between two Locomotives equipped with a functional KAVACH system.
  • It is designed to assist locomotive pilots in avoiding Signal Passing At Danger (SPAD) and over speeding.
    • SPAD - when a train passes a stop signal when not allowed to do so.
    • SPADs are one of the potential precursors to railway accidents.
  • It will also provide support for train operations during adverse weather conditions such as dense fog.
  • It is a Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technology with the probability of error being one in 10,000 years.
• Other features
  • Automatic Braking for Prevention of Over Speeding
  • Auto Whistling while approaching Level Crossing Gates
  • SoS Messages during emergency situations
  • Centralised live monitoring of Train movements through Network Monitor System
• Deployment strategy
  • Indian Railways had plans to implement KAVACH protection system to an extent of 2000 km during 2022-23.
  • Around 34,000 km of network will be brought under KAVACH.
• Benefits
  • Enhanced safety for Indian railways
  • World’s cheapest automatic train collision protection system
    • It costs ₹50 lakh per kilometre to operate compared to about ₹2 crore worldwide.
  • Opens avenues of export of this indigenous technology for Railways.