Kavach Indian product, yet to meet global standards: Hitachi Rail India

For years, India’s 'Kavach' system has been described as a technological breakthrough — a home-grown automatic train-protection (ATP) system that would revolutionise rail safety. Hailed as a triumph of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat', it has been projected as the Indian Railways’ answer to the world’s best.

However, a recent remark by a senior executive at Hitachi Rail India — the Indian division of one of the world’s major signalling and train-control companies — has offered a sobering reminder that the system’s global credentials remain untested.

In an interview with PTI, Manoj Kumar Krishnappa, whole-time director at Hitachi Rail STS India, said while Kavach represented an impressive domestic effort, it “is not a proven technology to the requirements of global standards”. His company, he added, had decided not to participate in the ongoing rollout because “it is more of an indigenous requirement for Indian Railways”, noting that Hitachi preferred to “wait and watch”.

Coming from a firm that has supplied train-protection and signalling systems to metros and high-speed lines around the world, Krishnappa’s comments serve as an unvarnished reality check for what has been one of Indian Railways’ most vaunted safety projects.

“I am very happy that there are a lot of Indian companies working on Kavach, and being Hitachi India, we also feel proud that it is an Indian product,” Krishnappa said. “But it is not a proven technology to the requirements of the global standards. So we are waiting and watching.”

He also pointed out that India had earlier used the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) — a more established technology based on the European Train Control System (ETCS) — on the Gatimaan Express, the country’s first semi-high-speed service launched in 2016. “The TPWS is a much better technology,” Krishnappa said, adding that India had opted for Kavach partly for cost reasons and the procurement culture that prioritises the lowest bidder over proven technology.

“I would not say only cost, but yes, cost is a major factor because any tender is decided on the L1 (lowest price) basis, where technology does not play as big a role as in other countries that give importance to proven or superior technology,” he observed.

The comments, while measured, cast a shadow on a system that has often been spoken of in almost patriotic terms.

Since its introduction, Kavach — literally 'armour' — has been marketed as a flagship example of Indian technological capability. The Railway ministry has described it as an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured ATP system with the "highest order of safety certification".

The system is meant to prevent collisions by automatically applying brakes if a loco pilot fails to do so in time. It is also designed to enforce speed limits and enhance safety in low-visibility conditions such as fog. Officials say it will form the backbone of future semi-high-speed operations by reducing dependence on manual responses.

According to the ministry, Kavach is equivalent to Level II of the European Train Control System, the widely used international benchmark for train-protection technologies. Trials began in 2018-19, and installation has been completed on several stretches of track, particularly in the South Central Railway zone. Yet, despite repeated announcements, large-scale operationalisation remains pending.

The government insists that delays are part of the testing cycle and scaling process, and that every new section requires rigorous validation before being commissioned. Officials have also said Kavach 4.0, the latest version of the technology, includes improvements in interoperability, braking precision and digital communication between train and track.

For companies like Hitachi Rail, which operate systems across Europe, Japan and the Middle East, the benchmark for ATP technology is high. Hitachi Rail STS India itself implemented the TPWS — an ETCS Level I system — on India’s Gatimaan Express corridor. The company has also equipped over a thousand Indian stations with electronic interlocking systems and provided signalling for the Katra–Srinagar rail route and Mumbai’s monorail.

Krishnappa said India’s decision to go its own way was understandable but came with trade-offs. “India has to be self-sustainable at some point. We have to achieve the vision of the Prime Minister for 2047. We have to have our own products and our own Indian companies,” he said. The challenge, he suggested, lay in balancing self-reliance with the rigorous certification and field-proving that global systems undergo.

For Indian Railways, Kavach remains a source of immense pride — an emblem of how domestic industry can develop critical safety technology once dominated by Western suppliers. The system has passed safety integrity level-4 certification (SIL-4), the highest standard for functional safety in railway systems. It is also significantly cheaper than imported solutions, reportedly by a factor of three to four.

But as Krishnappa’s assessment highlights, proving that Kavach can consistently deliver ETCS-equivalent performance across a 68,000-km network is a far greater task than developing it in the laboratory. India’s diverse terrain, ageing signalling infrastructure and variations in electrification standards make such integration complex. Each corridor requires careful calibration before activation, which partly explains why, seven years after its pilot phase, Kavach still covers only a fraction of India’s rail routes.

Krishnappa’s intervention — respectful but candid — thus serves as both endorsement and warning. Yes, Kavach marks a milestone in Indian engineering; no, it has not yet arrived at the level of the world’s leading systems.

For passengers and policymakers alike, that distinction matters. Automatic train-protection systems are not like apps that can be patched later; they must perform flawlessly, under all conditions, every time.

With PTI inputs