Hyderabad, March 5 (TIWN) Indian Railways is planning to implement KAVACH protection system to an extent of 2,000 km during the current financial year on high density routes like New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Howrah routes, Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.

The minister observed Kavach -- the Indian Railways Indigenous Automatic Train Protection System in action between Gullaguda- Chitgidda Railway stations of Secunderabad Division in South Central Railway.

"The system will be further extended to an additional 4,000 to 5,000 km from next financial year. The indigenously developed KAVACH system costs Rs 40-50 lakh for each kilometre, whereas European models cost approximately Rs 1.5-2 crore for each kilometre," the minister elaborated.

The 'KAVACH' - a state of the art Automatic Train Protection system was developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO). South Central Railway has been closely associated with its implementation since the development stage and is facilitating trials to achieve the corporate objective of safety in train operations across Indian Railways.