Kavach 4.0 Rollout Delayed Due To Slow Vendor Approvals, Indian Railways Extends Deadline To December 2025

The implementation of Kavach 4.0, Indian Railways’ upgraded automatic train protection system, is facing delays due to the slow pace of vendor approvals, the Financial Express reported. 

So far, only HBL Engineering has received the necessary clearance from the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), the designated body responsible for certifying equipment.

“The timely execution of Kavach hinges on version 4.0 compliance approvals. It’s a work in progress. Although there are no technological bottlenecks from the OEM side, the approvals are lagging behind,” a railway official said, as quoted by the Financial Express.

Indian Railways had initially set a March 2025 deadline for deploying Kavach 4.0 on the New Delhi–Mumbai and New Delhi–Kolkata routes. 

However, that deadline has now been extended to December 2025, as per a Railway Board document.

The current phase covers 3,000 km of track-side installations, with additional sections in progress.

The upgraded Kavach 4.0 system, introduced in July 2024, is an enhancement of version 3.2, which had been deployed across 1,465 route kilometres on the South Central Railway.

Indian Railways aims to equip 10,000 locomotives with Kavach 4.0 over the next six years, as part of a broader effort to enhance train safety.

As of March 2025, the railways had spent Rs 1,950 crore on the Kavach initiative, which has an overall allocation of Rs 3,764 crore.

HBL Engineering, which recently secured a major order under the scheme, remains the only approved vendor at present.

Other companies involved in the process, such as Kernex Microsystems, Medha Servo Drives, and RailTel Corporation, are at various stages of trials and approval.

Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw earlier informed that the cost of installing trackside and station equipment for Kavach is approximately Rs 50 lakh per kilometer, while the cost of equipping each locomotive with Kavach is around Rs 80 lakh.