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Rlys ROW to be used to set up telecom network

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Feb. 25

INDIAN Railways' decision to utilise its Right of Way (ROW) covering 62,000 km to build a nationwide broad-band telecom and multimedia network, would not only speed up the modernisation of the Railways' own telecom infrastructure, but provide a parallel nationwide telecom infrastructure for various telecom operators and Internet service providers (ISPs).

The plan to lay optic fibre cable along the railway tracks through private sector participation would also bring in much-needed extra revenue for the Railways.

The Railway Ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its two subsidiaries, Ircon and Rites, for laying fibre optic cable along the Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai and Mumbai-Pune-Chennai sections covering a distance of about 3,500 km.

Ircon had formed a joint venture with British Telecom, Enron Communications and Mahindra Information Technology to execute the work on the Delhi-Mumbai section, while Rites has inked a joint venture with BPL Telecom for implementing the work on the Delhi -Chennai section.

Under the MoU, the Railways will get free telecom facilities and 20 per cent share in the net profit made by the operator through commercial exploitation of the spare capacities. However, this revenue-sharing arrangement has come under review with the Ra ilway Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, objecting to the adoption of the MoU route for executing the project.

Official sources said that the finalisation of the joint ventures have been put on hold by Ms. Banerjee until a holistic view is taken of the entire OFC plan. The global tenders offering the Railways' ROW for laying the OFC network on the remaining secti ons covering about 15,000 km have been delayed in the absence of a domestic long-distance telecom policy.

In her Budget speech, the Railway Minister said that the Indian Railways is taking steps towards developing an attractive business plan to be implemented in collaboration with suitable joint venture partners through a professionally managed corporation.