The Ministry of Railways (MoR) approved projects worth Rs 12.36 billion for implementation of Kavach and upgradation of communication systems across the network on March 25, 2026. These are:
- Upgradation of fibre network for Central Railway (CR). Firstly, it involves, Optical Ground Wire (OPGW)-96 fibre deployment on 2,250.68 rkm, covering Solapur, Nagpur, Pune, and Bhusawal divisions at an estimated cost of Rs 2.38 billion, involving creation of a dual-path, high-capacity and redundant telecom backbone across divisions. Secondly, underground Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) (2×48 fibre) will be laid on one side of the track over 2,673.21 rkm across all five divisions-Solapur, Pune, Nagpur, Bhusawal, and Mumbai. at an estimated cost of Rs 3.84 billion, aimed at strengthening reliable communication for signalling, train control and real-time operations.
- Fibre Backbone Project for Western Railway (WR) at an estimated cost of Rs 3.02 billion, involves laying OFC (2×48 fibre, on each side of track) on the remaining stretches of two WR divisions in Gujarat-1,064 km in Rajkot division and 589 km in Bhavnagar division, totalling 1,653 km. This fills the last gaps in the fibre communication network of these divisions.
- Provision of Kavach for 548 rkm of high-density corridors in Southern Railway (SR) at an estimated cost of Rs 3.1 billion, covering installation of Kavach version 4.0 on two sections of SR:
- Jolarpettai-Erode (180 rkm, Salem division) and Chennai Beach-Tambaram-Chengalpattu (60 km, Chennai division)-along with new optical fibre cabling at an estimated cost of Rs 1.58 billion.
- Shoranur-Mangalore (308 km, Palakkad division)-along with new 4×48 fibre OFC cabling at an estimated cost of Rs 1.51 billion.