Railways, Railtel sign Memorandum of Understanding to upgrade signalling system

In a bid to modernise its signalling system, the Indian Railways on Monday signed an Memorandum of Understanding to upgrade it on four sections, an official release said.

The Railway Ministry release said that the Indian Railways signed the MoU with RailTel Enterprises Ltd (REL), a wholly-owned subsidiary company of RailTel Corporation of India Ltd, for modernization of signalling system on four sections, which includes Automatic Train Protection System with Long Term Evolution (LTE) based Mobile Train Radio Communication System (MTRC), together with provision of Electronic Interlocking (indoor) wherever required.

According to Railway Ministry, the project of modern train control system will be implemented on the 165 route km on the Renigunta-Yerraguntla section of the South Central Railway, 145 route km on the Vizianagaram-Palasa section of the East Coast Railway, 155 route km on the Jhansi-Bina section of the North Central Railway and 175 km route on the Nagpur-Badnera Section of the Central Railway.

These are some of the busiest routes on the Indian Railway with heavy traffic, it said.

"Automatic Train Protection System and LTE based MRTC will improve safety, help reduce congestion in these rail networks and increase line capacity and improve punctuality. It will also help to increase average speed of trains," it said.

The modern train control system shall be as per open standard, and interoperable with multi-vendor support. The MTRC system shall be deployed using LTE backbone for communication between train running staff, drivers, guards and control office.

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"This system will also be used for working of the Automatic Train Protection System. Initially, this system will be provided on 500 locomotives," it said.

The Railways said that the pilot project at estimated cost of Rs 1,609 crore is to be completed in 24 months.

The modern train control system, based on LTE based MTRC, is one of the most ambitious modernization projects of Indian Railways, which envisages upgradation of signalling system at par with the world standards.