Vinod Bhat
New Delhi: Indian Railways has sanctioned an important project for strengthening its communication infrastructure in Western Railway with the approval of Provision of 4×48 Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) Backbone in Ahmedabad and Ratlam Divisions at a total cost of ₹398.36 crore.
The project has been approved under the umbrella work titled “Provision of Kavach with communication backbone of Long Term Evolution (LTE) on balance routes of Indian Railways (Umbrella Work 2024–25)”, which has an overall sanctioned cost of ₹27,693 crore under Works Programme 2024–25 (PH-33). A sub-umbrella work for Western Railway has also been approved at a cost of ₹2,800 crore, under which this project has been taken up.
As part of the approved work, 2×48 fibre OFC cables will be provided over 1929 Route Kilometres (RKm) across Western Railway. This includes:
- 1456 RKm in Ahmedabad Division
- 473 RKm in Ratlam Division
This significant augmentation of the communication backbone will enhance capacity, reliability, and efficiency of railway communication systems. It will also support modern signalling systems, including the implementation of Kavach, enabling seamless data transmission across the network.
This initiative marks another step towards modernisation, safety enhancement and digital transformation of Indian Railways, ensuring improved operational efficiency and better service delivery for passengers and freight operations.
