Indian Railways to implement modern signalling and train control systems

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): India's national transporter, Indian Railways has decided to modernize its Signalling system on its entire network by implementing Modern Train Control system with Long Term Evolution (LTE) based Mobile Train Radio Communication (MTRC) System. This is one of the most ambitious modernization projects of Indian Railways, which envisages upgradation of signaling system for improving safety, Line Capacity and to run trains at a higher speed.

Accordingly, a work of Modernization of Signalling system on the entire Indian Railway network has been included in Works Programme 2018-19 at a cost of Rs. 77,912 Crores, to be implemented after approval of NITI Aayog, Extended Board for Railways (EBR) and sanction of CCEA. The work includes provision of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System, Electronic Interlocking System, Remote Diagnostic & Predictive Maintenance System, Long Term Evolution (LTE) based Mobile Train Radio Communication (MTRC) System, and Centralized Traffic Control System (CTC) /Train Management System (TMS).

As a prelude to taking up the above modernization work of signalling system on pan-India basis, 4 works of total 640 km routes at a total cost of Rs. 1810 Crores have been sanctioned as pilot projects in Supplementary WP 2018-19 for extensive trials. The four sections are:-

• Renigunta (RU) – Yerraguntla (YA) section on South Central Railway
• Vizianagaram (VZM) –Palasa (PSA) section on East Coast Railway
• Jhansi (JHS) – Bina (BINA) Section on North Central Railway, and
• Nagpur (NGP) – Badnera (BD) Section on Central Railway.

These are some of the busiest routes on the Indian Railway with heavy traffic. RailTel Enterprises Ltd. (REL), a 100% subsidiary of RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. (RCIL) has been given the responsibility to implement these four pilot projects on behalf of the Indian Railway. Tenders have since been invited and are under evaluation. In connection with works of raising of speed up to 160 kmph to reduce travel time from existing 18 hours to 12 hours on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah high-density routes, Modern Train Control system shall be implemented on these two routes separately.