The Indian Railways on Monday approved the provision of Kavach on 631 Route Kilometres (RKm) of East Coast Railway at a cost of Rs 270 crore in a bid to strengthen railway safety through indigenous technology.The project covers six important railway sections of East Coast Railway, namely Baghuapal–Budhapank, Haridaspur–Paradeep, Khurda Road (KUR)-Balangir, Naupada-Gunupur, Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh and Bobbili-Salur.Also read: Jaipur gets Amrit Bharat Express to Darbhanga; Khatipura Mega Coaching Terminal opensThe Ministry of Railways announced the Kavach expansion highlighting that the sanctioned work forms part of Indian Railways’ larger programme for deployment of Kavach with LTE-based communication backbone across the railway network."Installation of Kavach on these routes will help achieve a higher level of safety in train operations by providing automatic train protection and collision avoidance capabilities," the ministry said.The Kavach project is expected to benefit both passenger and freight train operations across key sections of Odisha and neighbouring regions served by East Coast Railway. It will further strengthen Railways’ ongoing mission to expand Kavach coverage across high-density and strategically important routes.What is Kavach?Kavach is India’s indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to enhance safety by preventing signal passing at danger (SPAD), over-speeding and train collisions.The Kavach system continuously monitors train movement and automatically applies brakes whenever required, significantly improving operational safety.Kavach enables safer and more reliable train movement during adverse weather conditions, including dense fog, thereby improving service reliability and punctuality.