New Delhi: Reiterating that the Narendra Modi government is giving much more attention to the development and connectivity of the Northeastern States at par with the rest of the country, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said that North East Frontier Railways (NFR) zones will be covered under Railway Ministry’s “Kavach 4.0” safety project in the coming days.
“All railway routes that come under the North East Frontier Railways (NFR) zones will be covered under the Railway Ministry’s “Kavach 4.0” safety project in the coming days,” said Vaishnaw here while interacting with a selected group of reporters.
He said that Kavach 4.0 was approved last week. This Kavach safety system will cover all zones including the northeastern States.
Kavach is an indigenously designed anti-collision device for trains. So far, 1465 route km (RKMs) of the over 68,000 RKMs of the railways have Kavach coverage.
It is worth mentioning that NFR is one of the 19 railway zones of the Indian Railways having its headquarters in Guwahati. It is responsible for the operation and expansion of rail network across all Northeastern states and some districts of eastern Bihar and northern West Bengal.
Installation of the Kavach system assumes much significance following the fact that several railway accidents took place in the past few months including the recent Kanchanjunga Express accident where at least 10 people died besides injuring others near New Jalpaiguri on June 17.
Admitting the fact that conditions in the northeast are unique, Vaishnaw said that the Indian railways will consider all factors for installing the Kavach safety system.
“Ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power, we have started working on the Kavach system since 2016. In 2019 these safety measures got certified. And last week, we approved Kavach 4.0. We are working on it to rapidly roll out the system,” Vaishnaw said.
The railway minister said that an amount of Rs 10,376 crore has been allocated for railway activities in the northeastern States for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
According to Vaishnaw, of the total budgetary allocation of Rs 2,55,393 crore for 2024-25, over 40 per cent will be used towards enhancing the safety of railways including the installation of Kavach.
He said that there are 18 railway projects worth Rs 74,972 crore in the northeast at present covering 1,368 km.
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