Page 30 - NIS English 01-15 February, 2025

COVER STORY
RAILWAYS' TRANSFORMATION

a developing India. Keeping this thought in NATIONAL AUTOMATIC TRAIN
mind, for the first time in India, a campaign PROTECTION - KAVACH
for the development and modernization of
railway stations has been started. Today, KAVACH is an indigenously developed Automatic Train
Protection (ATP) system. The system continuously monitors
a record number of foot over bridges, lifts the speed of the train and automatically adheres to the
and escalators are being constructed for the permissible speed limit. If the speed of the train exceeds
convenience of rail passengers in the country. the permissible speed limit or fails to comply with specific
Amrit Bharat Station Yojana has been started signal aspects, the ATP immediately activates
for the redevelopment of 1,309 stations across the emergency brake to stop the train.
the country. The work of redevelopment of KAVACH was adopted in July 2020.
KAVACH has been installed on
more than 500 major railway stations of the 10,000 1548 route km of the South
country has also been started. These stations Central Railway and North
are being redeveloped at a cost of more than locos are being Central Railway. Work
Rs 24,470 crore, which have been named Amrit equipped with KAVACH is in progress
Bharat Stations. Work is going on rapidly on protection 9,000 on the Delhi-
doubling of railway lines, gauge conversion and technology. Mumbai and
Delhi-Howrah
new routes in entire India including the eastern technicians corridors (about
part of the country. Soon the capitals of all the were trained. 3000 km). Bids
states of the Northeast will be connected to invited for 15,000
the railway network. Before 2014, there were Routine Km (RKM).
less than 6 thousand railway overbridges
and underbridges in the country, but now its CONNECTING WITH INDIAN CULTURE
number has increased to more than 10,000. AND HISTORICAL HERITAGE - PRAVASI
The number of unmanned railway crossings BHARATIYA EXPRESS
on major lines has now become zero. Soon
100 percent of the electrification of railway Indian Railways launched a special Pravasi Bharatiya
lines will be completed. Whereas before 2014, Express. In this train, about 150 people will visit tourist and
faith-related destinations. This train presents a great
barely 35 percent of the railway lines were opportunity for people of Indian origin in the age group of
electrified. By the year 2030, India will be a 45 to 65 years. In this three-week journey, the passengers
country whose railway network will run on net will visit places like Ayodhya, Varanasi, Patna, Gaya,
zero emissions. Mahabalipuram, Rameswaram, Madurai, Kochi, Goa, Ekta
In the last 10 years, the central government Nagar, Pushkar, Ajmer and Agra. At every stop, they will get
has tried to change the status of Indian to experience the cultural diversity, historical heritage, and
rich traditions of India.
Railways with great sincerity and hard work;
Vande Bharat Express is a glimpse of those
works. In the past years, railways have been 27 visit to
among those sectors that have made a lot of 150
progress in manufacturing under Make in India. countries 14
Along with this, modernization of rail coach passengers destinations
factories in the country, work of converting
diesel engines into electric, and new factories
have also been started for this. Earlier, online
reservation in railway tickets used to move at a
snail's pace. But today more than 20 thousand
tickets can be booked in a minute. Earlier, the
situation was such that it used to take at least

28 NEW INDIA SAMACHAR | February 1-15, 2025