Indian Railways has sanctioned a project to strengthen its communication infrastructure on Western Railway, approving the provision of 4×48 optical fibre cable (OFC) backbone across the Ahmedabad and Ratlam divisions at a total cost of Rs 3.98 billion.
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 carries an overall sanctioned cost of Rs 276.93 billion under works programme 2024-25. A sub-umbrella work for Western Railway has also been approved at a cost of Rs 28 billion, under which this project has been taken up.
As part of the approved work, 2×48 fibre OFC cables will be laid over 1,929 route kilometres (RKm) across Western Railway, covering 1,456 RKm in the Ahmedabad division and 473 RKm in the Ratlam division. The augmentation of the communication backbone is expected to enhance the 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.