7th August, 2003
Ministry of Railways  


MOU BETWEEN RAILTEL AND BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD


LOK SABHA

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and RailTel Corporation of India Limited (RailTel) relates to exploring new business opportunities to take advantage of the changing scenario in the country in telecommunication field. BSNL and RailTel have agreed to utilize their synergies, infrastructure and services for this purpose. There is no proposal, as such, to establish any new communication network. BSNL, however, may use RailTel’s OFC infrastructure dropped at stations for providing rural telephony and continuous coverage of their CellOne mobile phones along the track. BSNL may also offer last mile and interconnection to RailTel for their various requirements including International Long Distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) operations.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply to a question from Shri Ajoy Chakraborty in the Lok Sabha today.