Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said that the national transporter’s on-time performance has reached close to 80% across the network with some divisions recording over 90% punctuality. In a reply in Parliament, the minister said that in 25 out of the total 70 divisions, the punctuality is reaching 90%, highlighting the impact of strengthened maintenance practices and systematic operational upgrades implemented in recent years.
Vaishnaw draws a comparison between Indian and German trains
Vaishnaw also said that the punctuality levels across the rail network in India have surpassed those of many European networks, including Germany’s Deutsche Bahn long-distance services, which currently stand at 67.4%. Indian railways operate over 13,000 passenger trains per day, including mail and express trains, passenger trains, and suburban trains, in addition to around 11,700 freight trains.
The minister said that the indigenous automatic train protection (ATP) system Kavach 4.0 has been commissioned on 730 route kms in certain sections of the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah corridors. The implementation of the system is undergoing in the remaining sections of these two major routes, he said.
Development of Kavach technology
The first field trials for Kavach technology on the passenger trains began in February 2016. Based on the experience gained and independent safety assessment of the system, three firms were approved in FY19 for supply of Kavach version 3.2. After the deployment of this system on 1,465 route kms, further improvements were made to the system. Last year, the railways research arm RDSO approved the latest version of Kavach.
“Major improvement in version 4.0 includes increased location accuracy, improved information of signal aspects in bigger yards, station-to-station Kavach interface on OFC and direct interface to existing electronic interlocking system,” the minister said.
As per the railways ministry, the cost of trackside equipment, including station installations, is Rs 5 million per km whereas the cost of fitting Kavach equipment on locomotives is about Rs 8 million per loco. The funds utilised on Kavach works till October 2025 stood at Rs 2,354 crore, and the government has allocated additional Rs 1,673 crore for FY26.
