The Supreme Court recently sought a detailed status report from the Centre regarding the future planning of the implementation of the anti-collision Kavach system in Indian Railways.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) lodged by Advocate Vishal Tiwari, raised issues regarding the safety and protection measures with respect to train accidents in India. The plea underlined that the Indian government has approved the Kavach System to prevent train accidents. Nonetheless, the said Kavach System has not been implemented in all trains yet.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had requested the Attorney General for India to apprise it about the steps taken by the Union government so far in this regard. On Monday, the counsel representing the Centre informed the bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice K.V. Viswanathan, the difficulty in the faster implementation of the Kavach system.
The counsel appearing for the Centre told the Supreme Court that they are dependent on foreign working material for a long period, and if there is an indigenous substitution to take place, there is still a foreign competition bringing impediments in the implementation. The counsel further added that the Indian government is very serious about the implementation of the Kavach system.
Following, Justice Surya Kant asked the counsel about the future plan, mentioning that it is an ambitious project and that this is not something which can be done in a month or year or so and it might also require a lot of time. Additionally, Justice Viswanathan also asked the counsel if some report is present which suggests that the system is partly implemented in answer to some parliamentary query.
Subsequently, the counsel replied that a huge technical dimension is involved to cover the entire nation. Considering a request made on the behalf of the counsel, the apex court granted four weeks to the Centre to file a status report. The matter will be next listed after six weeks.