Odisha Train Accident: PIL Filed In Supreme Court For Early Implementation Of KAVACH

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeks early roll out of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System called the KAVACH by Indian Railways to ensure public safety.

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Following the Odisha train tragedy, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into a triple train accident. Furthermore, the PIL seeks guidelines/ directions for implementing the indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System called the KAVACH Protection System by the Indian Railways with immediate effect. Once implemented, the system will improve public safety and help in the reduction of train crashes in the country.

"Immediately to set up an expert commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court consisting of technical members to analyse and review the current risk and safety parameters in the railway system and to suggest systematic safety modifications for strengthening Railway safety mechanism and submit its report in two months to this court," the PIL filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari said.

The development comes after Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee voiced her concerns over the absence of the KAVACH system and cited it as a reason for the triple train accident in Balasore. However, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw cleared the claims saying that the anti-collision system had nothing to do with the accident.

Furthermore, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the root cause for the accident has been identified as "a change in the electronic interlocking." He also mentioned that the people responsible for the accident have been identified.

The anti-collision system in the discussion, KAVACH, is an indigenously developed electronic system designed for the Indian Railways to achieve the goal of zero train accidents. Developed by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) to attain the goal of safety in train operations across the railway network, takes control of the braking system in case the driver fails to follow the speed restrictions. It is a certified Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) technology with a 10,000-year error probability. 

Once in place, KAVACH will be the least expensive autonomous train collision safety system in the world, operating at a cost of around 50 lakh per km as opposed to 2 crores globally. Additionally, it gives Railways new export opportunities for this domestic technology.