Railway broadband to touch 500,000 homes in Digital India within two years

Carving a niche for itself in the Connected India-2020 project, Railtel Corporation’s broadband will reach 500,000 households through its Railwire network providing a host of services at the block level in the next two years, a top railway official has said. The Broadband Highway will involve a three-layer network - state capitals to district headquarters, district to sub-divisional and then to gram panchayats which will be joined to the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), Pradeep Kumar, executive director (East) of Railtel Corporation of India, told a Global Communication Conclave. Pradeep Kumar said Railwire network architecture provides the answer for ‘What Next’ as it will empower the people at village level with knowledge, skill development and core competencies. “This will lead to good governance and transparent, corruption-free governments.” Railtel’s pan-India optic fibre network covers 4,400-plus railway stations across 44,300 km. Railwire has also begun to tap the local cable operators focussing on pure-play broadband and VPN services, content and application-driven network. “Our aim is to become a hub of local information and tool for rendering communication, infotainment, education, health and community services to the masses,” Pradeep Kumar said. In Eastern India alone, Railtel seeks to cover 36,000 gram panchayats and the broadband services include emails, online newspapers, online passport application, tele-medicine, examination results and net surfing for students with a minimum 2Mbps speed. The company’s pilot projects at Panisagar and Girania in Tripura have aroused a lot of interest and enthusiasm, Pradeep Kumar said. For the Railways itself, Railtel provides mission-critical services such as computerised passenger reservation and ticketing system. IANS