Railways to Lay Optical Fibre Network Across 1,456 RKm in Ahmedabad Division

New Delhi: Indian Railways has sanctioned an important project to strengthen its communication infrastructure in Western Railway, with the approval of the provision of a 4×48 Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) backbone in the Ahmedabad and Ratlam divisions at a total cost of ₹398.36 crore.

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 has an overall sanctioned cost of ₹27,693 crore under the Works Programme 2024–25 (PH-33). A sub-umbrella work for Western Railway has also been approved at a cost of ₹2,800 crore, under which this project has been taken up.

As part of the approved work, 2×48 fibre OFC cables will be provided over 1,929 Route Kilometres (RKm) across Western Railway. This includes:

• 1,456 RKm in Ahmedabad Division
• 473 RKm in Ratlam Division

This significant augmentation of the communication backbone will 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.

This initiative marks another step towards modernisation, safety enhancement, and the digital transformation of Indian Railways, ensuring improved operational efficiency and better service delivery for both passenger and freight operations. DeshGujarat