In a bid to provide a safer and faster journey to passengers, Indian Railways is planning a big step forward towards signaling upgradation at par with the world standards. The Railways has signed  MoU with RailTel Enterprises Limited (REL) to upgrade its signaling system on four busiest sections including the 175-km route on the Nagpur-Badnera section of the Central Railway.
REL is a wholly-owned subsidiary company of RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. The project will be implemented on four sections across the Indian Railways’ network.
The signaling upgradation would not only improve safety but would also help in reducing congestion in the busy rail networks. It would also help the railways to increase line capacity and improve the punctuality of trains. The average speed of trains would also increase after upgradation.
Sources said, after successful completion of the project, similar train control system modernisation project would be implemented on some of the busiest routes on Indian Railway with heavy traffic.
Nagpur-Badnera section is one of the busiest routes of Central Railway. Trains plying between Mumbai and Howrah, towards South, Pune pass through Badnera railway station. At present over super fast and express trains go to Badnera from Nagpur and vice-versa due to heavy rush in railways.
The project includes setting up automatic train protection system with Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based Mobile Train Radio Communication System (MTRC) along with a provision of Electronic Interlocking (indoor) as per the requirement.
Along with Nagpur-Badnera section, signaling system on 165-km Renigunta-Yerraguntla section of the South Central Railway, 145-km Vizianagaram-Palasa section of the East Coast Railway, 155-km stretch on Jhansi-Bina route of the North Central Railway would also be upgraded under this pilot project, which is expected to cost Rs 1609 crore to the Railway’s exchequer.
The project is expected to be completed in 24 months. The Modern Train Control system based on LTE based MTRC is Indian Railways’ one of the most ambitious modernisation projects.
The MoU was signed by the executive director of Signal Development (Railway Board), Pradeep M Sikdar, Member (Signal & Telecom) of Railway Board, Kashinath, and CMD of Railtel, Puneet Chawla.
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