What is ‘Kavach’, India’s automatic train protection system?

The train accident in Odisha’s Balasore, which killed at least 288 people and injured nearly 1,000, has brought the railways’ automatic train protection system “Kavach” into focus.

The railways has said that “Kavach” was not available on the route where the accident occurred on Friday evening.

The system alerts when a loco pilot jumps a signal (Signal Passed at Danger — SPAD), which is among the leading causes of train collisions. The system can alert the loco pilot, take control of the brakes and bring the train to a halt automatically when it notices another train on the same line within a prescribed distance.