RailTel Corporation of India Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways, has been awarded the work of implementing a converged communication system over 230 stations in the South Western Railway (SWR) Zone valued at Rs 107.44 crore.
According to the official information given by RailTel, the company was selected for this project through an open tender bidding process.
The said project includes migrating to VoIP-based Train Control Communication Systems and Video Surveillance System (VSS). Scope of work includes Design, Planning, Supply, installation, fixing, configuration, integration and commissioning of this communication system. The project is targeted for completion within 12 months.
Giving detailed information about this project, the CMD of RailTel, Puneet Chawla, said that this project is very close to the core of RailTel’s expertise and we are confident of making the converged communication network of SWR as a showcase and role model for the other Zonal Railways. As RailTel maintains the national IP-MPLS (Internet Protocol- Multi-Protocol Label Switching) backbone, the integration of the SWR network with the national IP-MPLS network should happen smoothly.
This initiative of SWR to modernize to an all IP telecom infrastructure is among the first of its kind to replace the ageing Time Division Multiplexing based systems.
IP telephony is a general term for technologies, products and services that use the Internet Protocol’s packet-switched connections to support voice calling, voicemail, video calling, video conferencing, faxing and instant messaging (IM) etc. IP telephony works by converting voice calls, faxes and other information into digital signals. These digital signals travel through IP networks, such as the internet, as data packets, using IP packet-switched connections.
This state-of-the-art IP infrastructure can meet all the current and future connectivity requirements of the Railways such as Passenger Reservation System (PRS), Freight Operations Information System (FOIS), Coaching Operations Information System (COIS), Caution Order Management System, RailNetfor supervisory offices etc. and all future applications aimed at enhancing safety and efficiency of Train operations. (ANI)
