FM Sitharaman asks railways to implement Kavach safety system, meet capex target

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked the Indian Railways to expedite the implementation of Kavach system in a phased manner and meet the allocated capex target in the stipulated timeframe.

At a review meeting on Budgeted Capital Expenditure (Capex) of the railway ministry, the finance minister also urged officials to focus on capacity augmentation and take adequate steps to ensure safety of operations of the railways.

She asked the Railways to focus on commuter convenience, including doubling and electrification of existing railway tracks and also on laying of new railway lines across the country as per the capex outlay provisioned in the Union Budget.

The government is laying special focus on safety of Railway operations in view on several accidents and train derailments. Kavach, which is India’s indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system is expected to prevent train collisions as it would halt two trains from coming close to each other on the same track due to manual or signal failure.

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At the meeting, Railway ministry officials informed the finance minister that Kavach-related works are currently in progress in over 3,000RKm (route kms) on the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai sections. Also, Kavach version 4.0, developed by Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Railways has been operationalized on the Kota-Sawai Madhopur Section by the Kota Division of West Central Railway.

The meeting of the finance minister with rail ministry officials is part of a series of review meetings that have been scheduled with ministries/departments with significant capex outlays in the Union Budget.

In the 2024-2025 Union Budget, the government allocated a record capital expenditure (capex) of ₹2.62 trillion to the Indian Railways.

Railways boost efficiency

In a big push towards logistics efficiency and reduction of logistics costs related to rail movement, the Interim Budget for 2024-25 also provided for three Economic Railway Corridors Programmes identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity, including energy, mineral, and cement corridors; port connectivity corridors, and high traffic density corridors.

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The railway ministry officials informed Sitharaman that 434 railway projects have been identified under three Economic Corridors totalling 40,900km with a total investment plan of ₹11.16 trillion.

The railway officials also apprised the minister that under these corridors, 55 projects have already been sanctioned till now with total length of 5,723km. and investment plan of ₹1.03 trillion. During the current year, 101 projects are to be appraised under the corridor programme.

The finance minister also stated that the rail ministry should expedite the conversion of 40,000 normal rail bogies to Vande Bharat standards—as announced in the Interim Budget 2024-25—in order to enhance the safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.

She also asked the officials to ensure that capex target for FY2024-25 is achieved in a time-bound manner and take forward the momentum achieved in the first 100 days of the government.

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