OPERATION OF OPTIC FIBRE CABLE BASED COMMUNICATION ON RAILWAYS

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The Railways have planned to link four metros of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai and four mini metros of Ahmedabad, Pune, Secunderabad and Bangalore with optic fibre cable network during the current financial year 2003-2004. This project is being implemented by RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. (RCIL), a public sector undertaking of the Ministry of Railways.

So far, RailTel has linked 91 cities and 1096 stations on optic fibre cable network out of 150 important cities and 1500 stations planned for provision of optic fibre cable network. It has already provided Internet Kiosk at New Delhi Railway Station, which was commissioned on June 27, 2003. The Internet Kiosk at railway stations is being extended to cover 200 stations.

During the current financial year, Internet service on one of the selected trains is to be introduced shortly. Trial for introduction of Internet on trains was carried out successfully in April 2003 on Delhi-Mathura section. Its technological feasibility has been proved.