Indian Railways on Monday signed an MoU with RailTel Enterprises Limited (REL) for the work of modernisation of signaling system on four sections, which includes Automatic Train Protection System with Long Term Evolution based Mobile Train Radio Communication System.
The MoU was signed by ED/Signal Development, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways Pradeep M Sikdar and Director & CEO of REL AK Sablania in the presence of Member of S&T, Railway Board N Kashinath and CMD/RailTel Puneet Chawla.
This project of Modern Train control system will be implemented on 165 RKMs (Route kilometre) on Renigunta (RU) – Yerraguntla (YA) section on South Central Railway, 145 RKMs on Vizianagaram (VZM) –Palasa (PSA) section on East Coast Railway, 155 RKMs on Jhansi (JHS) – Bina (BINA) Section on North Central Railway and 175 RKMs on Nagpur (NGP) – Badnera (BD) Section on Central Railway.
These are some of the busiest routes on Indian Railway with heavy traffic. Automatic Train Protection System and LTE based MRTC will improve safety, help reduce congestion in these rail networks and increase line capacity, improve punctuality. It will also help to increase average speed of trains.
The Modern Train Control System shall be as per Open Standard, Interoperable with Multi-vendor support. Mobile Train Radio Communication System shall be deployed using LTE backbone for communication between Train Running staff, Drivers, Guards and Control Office. This system will also be used for working of Automatic Train Protection System. Initially, this system will be provided on 500 locomotives.
Talking about the project, Mr Kashinath, Member (Signal & Telecom), Railway Board, said, ‘we need to implement Modern Train Control System to keep pace with modern REL is a wholly owned subsidiary company of RailTel Corporation of India ltd.’
