RailTel to switchover from BSNL to OFC network

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) RailTel Corporation of India Limited, a public sector enterprise of the Railway Ministry, will switch over from the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) network to the Railways' Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) network for its Passenger Reservation System (PRS) in a phased manner.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways R.Velu today said Railtel's decision had been prompted by the fact that the Railways had created its own OFC network spanning 31,000 Route Kilometres and connecting 2896 towns and cities across the country.

''Therefore, it will not only be economical to run the PRS on Railways' OFC network resulting in considerable saving on rental, but it will also enhance the reliability,'' he said.

However, BSNL's network will also be utilized wherever there is unavailability of Railways' own network or as a standby network for important PRS locations.

Replying to another query, the minister said RailTel has built a nationwide Wide Area Network (WAN), which can be used by corporate world for exchanging the information from their remotely located plants.

''This is based on VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology, which provides cost-effective network connectivity to the user. The connectivity can be extended to large number of places along the RailTel's OFC network, thus making this facility available in remote, rural and semi-urban areas apart from large cities.'' Mr Velu said VPN technology had the potential to generate revenue for Railways by utilising the surplus capacity on its telecommunication network.

UNI