IR Witnesses Technological Upgradation Of Telecommunication Systems

As the year draws to a close, it is time to look back upon the achievements of the months that have been. The Indian Railways (IR) took many IT initiatives in the year that was to improve efficiency and achieve resource optimisation. Let us take a look at the main ones.

To connect remote locations where cable connectivity is not possible, IR set up and commissioned a satellite communication technology based V-SAT network in the current year. The hub of this network is commissioned at New Delhi, which is connected to more than 200 remote locations for Freight Operation Information System (FOIS) applications. There are also plans to use this network for connectivity from disaster sites for improved disaster management.

The trial on Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN) was successfully completed by RDSO/Lucknow in co-ordination with IIT/Kanpur, which involves real-time train tracking using GPS and mobile (GSM) Technologies. This project envisages dissemination of real-time train running information through the Internet and SMS medium and display boards at stations and on trains. It is proposed to further implement the project over Indian Railways on all mail and express trains.

Railtel Corporation of India (RCIL) was also set up with an aim to modernise the telecommunication system of Indian Railways as well as earn revenues from the surplus capacity of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC). Railtel has earned Rs 155 crore upto November 2008, which is higher by 44 percent over the corresponding year of last year. The earnings this year are more than Rs 50 crore higher over the corresponding period of last year.

A total of 30,000 Route Kilometres OFC has been commissioned on Indian Railways. Work of upgradation of OFC network to high bandwidth STM-16 network is in full swing and has already been commissioned on all important routes totalling about 25000 RKms. 204 important and 2,935 other stations have been put on OFC network of Indian Railways.