Indian railways-it-interface-1233484411458048-3

Indian Railways IT Interface

A Report
Presented to

Prof G Raghuram
Prof Rekha Jain
Prof Sebastian Morris
In
Partial Fulfillment of the Course Requirements of the

Infrastructure Development and Financing Course
On
August 24, 2001
By
Abhishek Kumar
Amit Gadgil
Ananta Satapathy
Rajesh Upadhyayula
Sandeep Prabhudesai

Group 3
Section B

Executive Summary
This report focuses on various aspects of Indian Railways and Information
Technology (IT) interface. Our project has three objectives viz. to examine the
Railway and IT interface from the perspective of Railways, to identify uses of IT for
improving effectiveness and efficiency of Railways and to evaluate issues pertaining
to railways developing and offering IT infrastructure for public use.

We have covered in this report the history of IT interface, various developments in
Railway IT interface till date. We have studied the various uses of IT in railways like
PRS, IMPRESS, CONCERT, FOIS and CRIS. We have also covered the RailNet, it’s
objectives, various phases of implementation, utility of RailNet and various issues in
RailNet.

In the next part of the report, we have studied the RailTel, the corporation formed for
implementation of OFC network for railways. We have focused on issues like need
for Railtel, demand potential, estimated market share, investment required, debt
equity options available, revenue model on the basis of one of these options, SWOT
analysis for RailTel and competitor analysis.

In the final part of this report, we have looked at the Railway IT interface across the
globe that may be useful to identify the various uses of IT in Indian Railways.

Table of Contents

Objectives Of The Project ________________________________________________ 1
History Of IT Interface __________________________________________________ 1
Need For IT In Railways _________________________________________________ 2
Background Of IT In Railways ____________________________________________ 2
Earlier Developments____________________________________________________ 3
Computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) ___________________________ 4
Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) ______________________________ 7
Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) ______________________________ 9
Need For CRIS _____________________________________________________ 10
RAILNET ____________________________________________________________ 10
Tools Provided By Railnet ____________________________________________ 11
Objectives__________________________________________________________ 11
Architecture________________________________________________________ 12
Problems With Transfer Of Messages & Files____________________________ 12
Phases Of Railnet ___________________________________________________ 12
Phase - I (Completed) _______________________________________________ 12
Phase - II (Tender to be finalized shortly) _______________________________ 13
Phase – III (Sanctioned) _____________________________________________ 14
Utility Of Railnet____________________________________________________ 15
Hardware Components (Phase-I) ______________________________________ 16
Software Components (Phase-I) _______________________________________ 17
Internet Access _____________________________________________________ 17
Strengths __________________________________________________________ 17
Limitations_________________________________________________________ 17
Remedies_________________________________________________________ 18
Future Scope ______________________________________________________ 18
Issues In Railnet ____________________________________________________ 18
Introduction __________________________________________________________ 21
Communication Requirements for Railways ________________________________ 21
Current Status of Railways’ communication network _________________________ 22
Potential _____________________________________________________________ 22
Creation of Railtel _____________________________________________________ 23

Objectives of Railtel ____________________________________________________ 23
Demand Potential______________________________________________________ 23
Estimated Sector Sizes ______________________________________________ 24
Bandwidth Demand ________________________________________________ 25
Technical Plan for Network Deployment ___________________________________ 25
Introduction________________________________________________________ 25
ISP/NLDO Business _________________________________________________ 26
Estimated Market Share _____________________________________________ 26
Railways’ Asset Contribution ____________________________________________ 26
Asset Contribution Breakup __________________________________________ 27
Investment ___________________________________________________________ 27
Business Financials and Revenue Model for Railtel __________________________ 28
Implementation Plan ___________________________________________________ 29
Synergy with Railways __________________________________________________ 30
Possible Synergies with PSUs of the Department of Telecommunication__________ 30
Competitor Analysis ____________________________________________________ 30
Facilities Assessment_________________________________________________ 31
Existing OFC Infrastructure __________________________________________ 31
Planned Facilities ___________________________________________________ 31
Right of Way (RoW) _________________________________________________ 32
Main Competitors ___________________________________________________ 32
Department of Telecommunications____________________________________ 32
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited _______________________________ 33
Gas Authority of India Limited________________________________________ 36
Cellular Operators__________________________________________________ 38
Private Basic Services Operators ______________________________________ 39
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) ________________________________ 40
SWOT Analysis of RailTel_______________________________________________ 40
Railway-IT Interface around the Globe ____________________________________ 42
South and East Africa________________________________________________ 42
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) ________________________________ 43
European Train Control System (ETCS) ________________________________ 48
Appendix 1 ___________________________________________________________ 53
Appendix 2 ___________________________________________________________ 54
Appendix 3 ___________________________________________________________ 55

Appendix 4 ___________________________________________________________ 56
Bibliography __________________________________________________________ 62

Abhishek Kumar, Amit A Gadgil, Ananta N Satapathy, Rajesh U, Sandeep R Prabhudesai

Objectives Of The Project

?? To examine the Railway and IT interface from the perspective of Railways
?? Identifying uses of IT for improving effectiveness and efficiency of Railways
?? To evaluate issues pertaining to railways developing and offering IT infrastructure
for public use

History Of IT Interface

60’s
?? A dedicated skeletal communication network was developed by IR, as a basic
requirement for train operation
?? Plan to progressively computerize railways working was accepted in principle by
Management and Labor Unions
70’s
?? Pay-rolls, Inventory control and Operating statistics
?? Deployment of Computers for productivity improvement through building up
operational data bases
80’s
?? Computerization of Passenger Reservation Arrangement
?? Developing a Freight Operations Information System
?? Replacing the existing Computers at the Zonal Railways
?? Production Units with the State-of-the-art Computer systems
?? Provision of Computers at Divisions, New Production units, Work-shops, Sheds
and Depots and Training Institutes
?? Quantum improvement in the use of Computers in the offices
90’s
?? Enterprise wide Computer system
?? IT Applications for Passenger Business Area

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Need For IT In Railways

Transportation Industries such as Railways operate in a dynamic and constantly changing
environment. This requires a continuous update of information about current status and
location of these assets. The optimum utilization of material resources, which they
deploy, would require collection and collation of accurate data on their current utilization
and an inventive analysis of the information collected.
Information Resource is a critical managerial tool for confronting and tackling the
business challenges on a real time basis. Transportation industries are also service
industries and they thrive and flourish on Information - rich soil that provides them the
vitally needed link to their customers and other major stakeholders. Railways being
multi-locational, multi-functional and multi-divisional organization provide an ideal
backdrop for Computer Networks, which can allow sharing of resources across the
Corporation and information with their customers.
Railway Industry, being an age-old industry, finds many of its existing business and
operational practices inadequate for adjusting in the current fast changing business
environment. Unless, Railways also develop capabilities to harness information resources
through the use of exploding information technology, as other industries are doing, its
continued presence as a viable industry in future may become a question mark. On the
contrary, if the railway system can exploit Information Technology to modernize their
operations and practices to suit the needs of their customers, they can gain tremendous
competitive advantage in the present and future business environment.

Background Of IT In Railways

Indian Railways (IR) is the principal mode of transport in the country. IR today has
62,660 route km of rail track. The total investment on IR has been Rs. 356.2 billion. Last
year, IR moved 390.5 million tonnes of freight, generating a traffic output of 272 billion
tonne kms. At the same time the system carried 4,068 million passengers generating a
traffic output of 339 billion passenger kms. This output was produced with the help of
over 7,000 locomotives and 300,000 wagons. The efficiency index of Wagon utilization
measured in terms of net tonne kms per wagon per day stood at 1,780, which is one of the

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highest in the World. IR's network has 7,050 Railway Stations and its employees number
a little over 1.6 million - making it the largest single employer in India.
Over the last four and half decades, the freight transport has increased by about 5.75
times and passenger output by about 4.2 times. The growth in traffic output has not been
evenly matched by the growth in inputs in the form of track and rolling stock. The high
density has been further accentuated by the imbalance of the traffic flows. The BG routes
though forming 63.2% of the route, carry 95% of freight traffic and 89% of passenger
traffic of IR. Among the BG routes, the six corridors connecting the four major
metropolises of Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi and Chennai and the two diagonals comprising
15.8% of total network carry in excess of 56% of the total freight transport output and
47% of passenger traffic, thereby causing serious congestion on the golden quadrilateral.
The perennial constraint of resources has adversely affected Railway's development
resulting in diversion of traffic from rail to road at an overall higher cost to the economy.
Currently, Railways carry only 40% and 15% of the overall freight and passenger traffic
respectively. Rapid growth in the demand for bulk transport has compelled the railways
to evolve operating strategies and technology for running unit trains to match this
demand. The emphasis of the railways on running of unit trains is denying the use of cost
effective rail transport to a large number of smaller volume customers and this has been
hastening the decline of market share on the part of Railways.
Indian Railways have reached today a significant phase and are at a threshold of an
uncertain future. IR will be required to make necessary competitive adjustments to deal
with the pressures of market forces in a liberalized economic environment, not only to
remain financially viable, but to be able to satisfy the growth in demand for rail transport.
As Railways stare into the dark-tunnels, the only source that can probably shed the light
to carry it - blazing into the future is the Information Technology tool, which many
successful organizations are using to their profit.

Earlier Developments
Realizing the important role that information plays in Railways operations, IR had
embarked on its Computerization Program, earlier than many other organizations in the
country. Towards the end of 60's, two positive developments took place in Indian

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Railways. Firstly, even though, computerization was perceived by many as a labor saving
measure, IR could realize its potential advantage and the plan to progressively
computerize Railways was accepted in principle by Management and the Labor Unions.
Secondly, a dedicated skeletal communication network was developed by IR, as a basic
requirement for train operation, even though the future development of the merger of
computers and communication to give birth to Information Technology was not actually
visualized at that time. After the early introduction of regular flavor computer
applications such as Pay rolls, Inventory control and Operating statistics, Railways were
poised in the mid 70's for deployment of computers for productivity improvement
through building up operational databases. However, certain administrative issues and
political development came in the way of bringing about any further developments in the
field of computerization. The period between mid 70's to early 80's were however utilized
by IR to develop a blue print for further computerization. During the beginning of the
80's IR decided on
?? Computerization of the Passenger Reservation Arrangement.
?? Developing a Freight Operations Information System.
?? Replacing the existing Computers at the Zonal Railways and Production Units
with the State-of-the-art Computer systems enabling the organization to
computerize more applications and increasing the volume of users.
?? Provision of Computers at Divisions, New Production units, Workshops, Sheds
and Depots and Training Institutes.
?? Quantum improvement in the use of Computers in the offices.
In the last 10 years, IR has made significant progress in Computerization. Out of these
developments, we shall examine some of the systems that are currently being
used/developed on IR.

Computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS)

Out of the total passengers carried by IR, inter-city passengers constitute a mere 9% of
the total volume. But, this small proportion, out of the total, generated 176 billion
passenger-km out of a total of 341 billion passenger-km, about 52% of the total. They
also bring in a revenue of Rs. 42.9 billion in a total passenger revenue of Rs. 60 billion,

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constituting roughly 72% of the total. It is a matter of comfort for IR that this market
segment is a well-patronized one and in order to meet the situation of demand over
running supply, the customers have been provided with the facility of making their
reservation on these trains, 30 days in advance.
The seats/berths reservation system on trains is a fairly complex activity, not only
because of volume involving more than 600,000 seats/berths reservations per day, but
also because of seven different categories of trains operating, using 72 types of coaches
with seven classes of reservation, more than 40 types of quotas and more than 80 kinds of
concessional tickets. The method of calculation of fare is also quite complex as charges
are based on the distance, comfort level provided and the transit time. Because of this
complexity and sheer volume involved, IR undertook management of Reservation work
through computers.
A pilot project consisting of a few popular trains implemented at New Delhi in November
1985 came out successful and was well received by the customers. By May 1987, the
entire New Delhi Reservation Load was computerized. The stand-alone VAX Computer
Systems were further implemented at remaining three metropolitan cities, namely,
Mumbai (June '87), Calcutta (July '87) and Chennai (October '87) and they account for
over 40% of reservation volume. The last stand-alone Cyber Computer System was
implemented at Secunderabad (July '89), which was subsequently replaced by VAX
computer system (Jan '95).
Many other stations having advance reservation arrangements were connected as remote
terminals to the existing five computer systems for accessing the entire database of the
host computer. In the computerized system, IR decided that technical and service
considerations would be used to determine the host to which a station would be linked up.
To improve the service levels further, by providing better access to customers, remote
terminals from the host computers are also being provided at satellite locations in the
Metropolitan cities. In some major cities, satellite terminals from five host computer
systems were also provided, thus allowing customers access to reservation databases
residing there. A teleprinter interface to PRS called AUTOMEX, is also in place to
enable those stations which are not connected by remote terminals, to access the
reservation database.

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The Passenger Reservation System Software is given the name Integrated Multi-train
Passenger REServation System (IMPRESS) and consists of roughly 2,700 Sub routines.
Developed through 30 man years of programming effort in the language of FORTRAN,
the software functions as an integrated system of four main modules, which handle the
functional requirements of Reservation, Enquiry, Accounting and Charting. The system
has full scale back up and recovery facilities.
The entire computerized PRS system, thus, functions as five stand-alone systems. The
stand-alone architecture does not allow reservation at a terminal from databases in two
different host computers. The provision of remote terminals at major stations from more
than one host computer partially takes care of this, though the customer has to stand in
two or more queues. IR now plans to inter-link the five host computers using networking
software and distributed transaction processing. This will provide access to databases in
all the five host computers at any terminal in the country. The entire system can then
cover almost all reservation quotas on IR, with the databases distributed over five
computer locations, providing reservation access all over the country.
As a first major step towards the goal of single image passenger reservation system, the
first prototype of PRS Networking Software, CONCERT (COuntrywide Network of
Computerized Enhanced ReservaTion) using FORTRAN (30%) and C (70%)
languages was implemented at Secunderabad in January '95. CONCERT is written,
keeping in mind the Client-Server architecture of Computer System to achieve easy
hardware expansionability in future. Its message routing feature for WAN (Wide Area
Network) implementation is achieved through RTR software and Router hardware,
connected directly to an ethernet backbone. As a first phase of CONCERT
implementation, the IMPRESS software version at the two stand-alone PRS systems at
Secunderabad and New Delhi has been replaced with CONCERT and work is in progress
for networking these two systems, using 64 kbps channels. The network application
modules, once successfully completed, are expected to get extended to PRS at Calcutta,
Chennai and Mumbai. After the full-scale implementation, the requirement of
communication channels will come down, as there will be no need for extending circuits
for connecting remote terminals to particular PRS location only, in view of every terminal

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becoming universal. CONCERT will also add multiple lap functionality resulting in
better customer service.

Freight Operations Information System (FOIS)

The market share of IR in the total freight traffic carried in the country has been declining
in the last 20 years mainly due to the inability of IR to carry all the traffic offered to it.
This inability arises from the fact that the railways have been consistently facing severe
shortage of Rolling Stock for carrying all traffic and serious constraints in line capacity
for moving the traffic.
While considerable inputs are needed for augmenting the capacity of rolling stock as well
as line capacity, the optimum utilization of existing resources is considered more
imperative for carrying additional volume of traffic. It is of common knowledge that
railway systems all over the world have profitably used computerization for improving
the utilization of rolling stock assets of their systems.
Realizing the significant contribution that computerization can make in improving the
utilization of rolling stock assets, Indian Railways have been planning from the early
stages for the introduction of use of computers in the freight operations. In the early 70's
the advance transmission of CONSIST from marshalling yard to marshalling yard was
attempted but the inherent limitations of the hardware available at that time and the non-
availability of reliable communication lines thwarted the early attempts.
The administrative issues and political developments which were responsible for
stagnancy in the area of computerization during late 70's also played a major part in
delaying further introduction of computers in freight operations. Ultimately, Indian
Railways decided in 1986 to go in for an integrated computer communication system
called Freight Operation Information System (FOIS) with an objective to computerize the
information relating to all operational activities and monitor the performance of all
activity centers connected with freight traffic management.
FOIS will maintain data banks of all fixed and rolling stock assets of the IR with their
characteristic features, to help proper evaluation and optimization of their use. All the
data will be captured dynamically, as an event is happening. Such data banks will be used
to improve the quality of decision making and for producing management information

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reports on all aspects of freight operations, without the need to collect past data, every
time. For this, FOIS will have many sub-systems for handling individual activities. It was
anticipated that the introduction of FOIS would bring about a minimum of 10%
improvement in Wagon utilization and 5% improvement in Locomotive utilization.
The FOIS architecture is two tier, with a central system at Railway Board level,
processing all identified core functions relating to moving assets and Zonal Systems at 5
locations processing all local functions carried out at Activity Reporting Centers such as
Goods Sheds and Sidings, Transhipment Points, Yards, Stations, Interchange Points,
Wagon Repair Depots, Locomotive Sheds, Fuelling Points, Crew Changing Points,
Carriage & Wagon Workshops, Locomotive Workshops etc. While the central computer
system is located in New Delhi, the five Zonal Computer Systems are located at New
Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai and Secunderabad.
For implementing FOIS, after surveying the similar technologies available in world
railways, it was decided to import software from Canadian National Railroad for the data
processing at the central computer. This software called TRACS (Traffic Reporting and
Control System) ran on IBM compatible machines and had been implemented earlier in
Southern Pacific Railroad, Canadian National Railroad and British Rail.
The Central System handles the core functions like control of wagon movement, control
of train movement, locomotive movement, scheduling and routing of traffic, empty
wagon distribution, container traffic, safety management, marketing applications, total
system performance statistics, corporate planning etc. The Zonal Systems handle
distributed field functions like yard management, local area management (inclusive of
Goods sheds, Transhipment sheds, Invoice preparation and invoicing), maintenance and
repairs of wagons and locomotives, crew management, fuel management, safety
management, statistical (query based, scheduled, off-line and message) reports,
accounting, billing, costing and apportioning of revenue among the Zonal Railways etc.
The assessment of the cost of FOIS Project has ranged from Rs.2.1 billion (1979) to Rs.5
billion (1982), to Rs.17 billion (1986). The cost has since been revised down to Rs.11
billion in 1988, at 1986 prices. The major reason for cost fluctuations were the
uncertainty over creation of supporting communication infrastructure to cater the need of

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reliable and speedy computer communication across the length and breadth of IR,
spanning all over India.
Presently, a pilot project is under implementation on Northern Railway using Central and
Zonal Computer Systems installed at New Delhi. On the basis of the experience gained
from the field trial, FOIS network will be expanded in future. This, however, will need a
strong organizational will at all levels to accept the project, quicker decision making at
every stage of project implementation and availability of adequate funds, in time.
The traditional method of "Repetitive and periodic reporting" being followed at present
by Indian Railways for train operation is unable now to cope up with the ever increasing
demand of public transport coupled together with increase in speed and safety standards.
To reap the benefit of explosion in IT worldwide and also to take the advantage of
liberalized policy of Government of India towards Information Technology, Indian
Railways have establish a ‘Corporate Wide Information System’ (CWIS) between
Railway Board, Zonal Railways Head Quarters, Production Units and Centralized
Training Institutes, etc. called as ""RAILNET". It will be able to provide smooth flow of
Information on demand for administrative purposes from the important operational
locations up to top level and vice-versa, which will help in taking quicker and better
decisions.

Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS)

In 1986, the Ministry of Railways established CRIS to be an umbrella for all computer
activities on Indian Railways. They also entrusted it with the task of design, development
and implementation of FOIS, along with its associated communications infrastructure.
The Center started functioning from July 1987. It is an autonomous organization headed
by the Managing Director. CRIS is mainly a project-oriented organization engaged in
development of major computer systems on the Railways. CRIS has acquired special
knowledge and expertise in the field of informatics. With such a rich practical
experience, a dedicated team of professionals and its own R&D effort, CRIS aims to be a
leader in this fast developing field.

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Need For CRIS

A separate organization was considered better suited to take up all computer activities on
IR mainly for the following reasons:
?? To avoid duplication of efforts by individual Railways.
?? To ensure standardization of computer hardware and software on the Railways.
?? To undertake design and development of major applications on Railways
requiring higher levels of expertise, faster decision making and system wide
applicability.
?? To insulate the organization from day to day working of the Railways so that its
objectives are not lost sight of.
?? Need for a combined effort of Railways and Computer Specialists, considered
best suited for the development of the computer applications on Railways.
?? Need for development of expertise in highly specialized fields like Operation
Research, Simulation, Expert System, CAD/CAM, Process Control etc.
?? Need for greater flexibility to keep pace with the fast changing technology.

RAILNET

RAILNET has the potential for transfer of messages, files, e-mails between the important
locations on Indian Railways. In addition, the internal web site in Railway Board and
Zonal Railways Headquarters supports codes, manual procedure orders, policy directives
and other important information for day-do-day use by various officials. Detailed
estimate amounting to Rs.7.81 crore for the work of RAILNET was sanctioned in
Nov.’ by the Railway Board. The structure of RAILNET is as under:
98

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RAILNET will provide computer connectivity between Railway Board and Zonal
Railways, Production Units, Centralized Training Institutes, RDSO, CORE,
MTP/Calcutta & 46 Major Training Institutes.

Tools Provided By Railnet

?? Email
?? EDI
?? WWW
?? Telnet
?? FTP

Objectives

?? Eliminate the need to move paper documents between different offices
?? Change from ‘Periodic Reporting’to ‘Information on Demand’

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?? Expedite & facilitate quick & efficient automatic status update between Railway
Board & Zonal Railways

Architecture

?? To have internet access at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata.
?? Capability to monitor & control usage of RAILNET & Internet.
?? Expedite & facilitate quick & efficient automatic status updates between Railway
Board Zonal Railways.

Problems With Transfer Of Messages & Files

?? Manual system of transfer of messages & files are time consuming &
unbelievably slow.
?? Sometime the messages are illegible (due to poor photocopy quality or poor hand
writing)
?? The messages sometimes do not reach the concerned person.
?? Sender is not sure whether the message has reached the correct person.

Phases Of Railnet

Phase - I (Completed)
This consisted of interconnecting LANS at the following locations:
?? Railway Board
?? Existing Zonal Railway Headquarters
?? Production Units
?? Clw / Chittaranjan
?? Dcw / Patiala
?? Dlw / Varanasi
?? Icf / Perambur
?? Rcf / Kapurthala
?? W & Ap/ Bangalore

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The contract for Phase-I was awarded to M/s Tata Infotech Limited. The scope of work
included Supply,Installation,Testing and Commissioning of Servers, Routers, Centralized
Switches, Modems etc. including Internet/Intranet software. The work has been
completed except for NFR, DLW and DCW because of non-availability of
site/connectivity.

Phase - II (Tender to be finalized shortly)
This consists of interconnecting LANS at the following locations:
?? New zones (6 nos.)
?? Rdso / Lucknow
?? Core, Allahabad
?? Mtp , Calcutta
?? Centralized training institutes
?? Rsc/ Vadodara
?? Irieen / Nasik
?? Irimee / Jamalpur
?? Iriset / Secunderabad
?? Iricen / Pune

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This phase will also consist of the following centers to facilitate interconnections:
?? Major training centres (46)
?? Zonal training centres (9)
?? Supervisor training centres(9)
?? S&T training centres (9)
?? Electrical training centres (9)
?? Civil training centres (9)
?? RPF training centre (1)
?? All divisional HQs (yet to be sanctioned)

Phase – III (Sanctioned)

This phase will interconnecting LANS at the following locations:
?? All Sub Division Hqs(Aen/Hq Etc.)
?? Workshops
?? Mechnical
?? Loco
?? C&W

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?? S&T
?? Engg/Bridge
?? Stores Depots
?? Major Stations (I.E. Cat ‘ stations)
A’
?? Passenger Complaint Centres

Utility Of Railnet

?? Railnet users can exchange mail
?? Commercial Deptt. is extensively using Railnet for their ‘Complaint Centres’
applications
?? Railways have launched their web pages
?? Authorised users can access the internet through Railnet either in LAN or through
Remote Dial-up on Rly. Telephone.
?? Defined users in the LAN can share their resources.

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Hardware Components (Phase-I)

?? Compaq Servers
?? CISCO Routers, Switches & Hubs
?? Structured cabling using ‘AMP Net Connect’Components
o UTP-Cat 5 cabling (10 Mbps)
o Maximum distance permissible 100 meters between
?? Nodes and Hubs
?? Hubs & switches
?? Switches & Server/Router

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Software Components (Phase-I)

?? MS Windows NT Server
?? MS Windows NT Workstation 4.0
?? Internet Information Server 3.0
?? Front Page Express 98
?? Lotus Nodes Clients 4.6
?? Cisco Works with SNMPC
?? Cisco Pix Firewall
?? NMS

Internet Access

Internet Access (128 Kbps) has been provided in Delhi & Mumbai, which will enable the
authorised Railnet users to
?? Exchange E-mail. The Railnet user will have the same E-Mail address for Internet
also.
?? Browse the World Wide Web

Strengths

?? Uses Internet Technology, hence scaleable from PC-LAN-WAN-Internet.
?? Universal browser Interface gives ‘Single’Viewing Window.
?? Freedom of Choice enables it to be implemented on dissimilar systems.
?? Saving Money.
?? Reduced Development Time.
?? Performance
?? Improved Business Processes.

Limitations

?? Security, End-user Acceptance
?? Network Security - Major Concern

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?? Possible Hazards
Downloading classified information
Disable network
Corrupt data
Introduce virus etc.
Remedies

?? User authentication- Password
?? Virus scanner
?? Internet access at Delhi & Mumbai provided through Firewall
?? Use of licensed and authentic software
Future Scope

Railnet can also be used for
?? Voice Communication
?? Video Communication
?? Video Conferencing

Voice over Railnet was sucessfully demonstrated during a General Managers’ conference
in Rail Bhawan. Video conferencing over Railnet was successfully demonstrated between
the Minister for Railways, Chairman & members of the Railway Board and General
Manage, Mumbai on 01.02.99

Issues In Railnet

?? Accessibility of Contents of Web Pages
?? Internet users
?? Railnet users: Unrestricted; Restricted
?? Development, Design & Maintenance
?? Inhouse
?? Through External agency
?? Coordinated efforts
o Similarity

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o Compatibility
o Compilation
?? Various Applications
?? Quasi Static
o Codes
o Manuals
o Gazettes
o Various Status
o Seniority List
?? Dynamic
?? Punctuality
?? Logging of Trains
?? Progress of works
?? Training Schedules/Nominations etc
?? Work Flow
?? Internet Access
?? Uniform Policy
?? Level of Eligibility
?? Time Limit
?? Security - Firewall
?? Bandwidth Constraint
o 128 K - Rs. 8.7 Lacs
o 256 K - Rs. 11.9 Lacs
o 2MB - Rs. 47.0 Lacs
?? Maintenance
?? Proper Strategy for O&M
?? Data Links - Including timely payment of DOT leased circuits
?? Man power - Redeployment and Training
?? Computer Hardware
?? System and Application Software
?? General

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?? PC’ Ethernet Card, Modem
s,
?? Sufficient no. of Dial-Up Ports
?? Railnet Connectivity - On Demand
?? Training of Maximum S&T Personnel
?? Increase usage by putting more & more applications

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Railtel Corporation of India Limited

Introduction

Railways have various communication needs. It is very important for railways to have a
reliable communication system since it is essential for efficient and safe operations of
trains. As such, formation of Broadband Telecom and Multimedia Corporation was
considered by Ministry of Railways. The Corporation registered as Railtel Corporation of
India Limited was incorporated in September 2000.

Communication Requirements for Railways

Railways have various communication requirements as follows:
1. The primary requirement is for control and block communication. Control
communication is required for monitoring from central control office; the running
of trains on a section of 200 to 300 Km. The central control office is connected to
all the stations. Block communication is necessary for safe movement of trains
from one station to the next.
2. Administrative communication requirements that include:
?? Connecting divisional headquarters with important stations
?? Connecting Zonal headquarters with the divisions
?? Connecting Railway Board with Zones
?? Emergency communication for crew of disabled train to talk to section
controllers
3. Use of communication channels for data transmission for:
?? Passenger Reservation System
?? Freight Operation Information System
?? Management Information System
?? Passenger Information System
?? Railnet

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Thus, as can be seen from above, it is very essential for Railways to have an efficient
communication system. Since DOT was unable to meet the stringent requirements of
Railways’ communication, Railways have started developing their own communication
network.

Current Status of Railways’communication network

At present Railways have obsolete and over aged communication systems like overhead
alignment, analog microwave, and underground copper cables. Now, these systems are
being replaced by Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) and digital microwave. Further, OFCs are
to be provided in lieu of overhead alignment on sections that are being electrified (as
OFC is not affected by the electro – static and electro – magnetic interference caused by
25 KV electrified lines).
Railways are now providing for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) transmission
equipment. This system creates a minimum bandwidth of 155 mbps whereas; railways
are using only 2 mbps at wayside stations. Further, analog microwave links of 120
channels are being replaced by digital microwave links that have 34 mbps system (480
channels).
Thus, it can be seen that OFC and digital microwave links have resulted in generation of
surplus telecom capacity at railway stations as well as at major junctions. However, this
excess capacity is being unutilized at present.

Potential

Railways have uninterrupted Right of Way (ROW) along 62,800 Route Km of railway
track passing through 7000 stations. Further, the stations at major cities are located in the
central business districts (CBDs). OFC is a preferred transmission media for data and
voice over long distance. Right of Way is critical for laying OFC and hence railways are
ideally suitable for laying of OFC for creating nationwide network. Considering these
factors and the resource crunch that Railways is facing, it has been decided by Railways
to use surplus telecom capacity and ROW to build nationwide OFC based broadband
telecom and multimedia network.

- 22 -


Creation of Railtel

Railway Budget 2000 - 2001 provided for implementation of this plan through a separate
professionally managed corporation viz. Railtel Corporation of India Limited (RCIL).
RCIL is set up as a 100% PSU and is registered with the Registrar of Companies under
the Companies Act, 1956.

Objectives of Railtel

Following are the main objectives of Railtel Corporation
1. To modernize railways train control, operational and safety systems and networks.
2. To create a nationwide broadband telecom and multimedia network to supplement
national telecom infrastructure to spur growth of telecom internet and IT enabled
value services in all parts of the country specially rural, remote and backward
areas.
3. To generate the revenues needed for implementing Railway’ developmental
s
projects, safety enhancement and asset replacement programs.
4. To significantly contribute to realization of goals and objectives of National
Telecom Policy, 1999.

Demand Potential

Nature of demand: Demand in long distance telecom market is geographically dispersed.
Demand for long distance voice and data traffic is expected to grow on account of the
following reasons:
?? Increase in number of telephone subscribers - both fixed and mobile
?? Additional facilities like internet, WAP being provided to mobile users will lead
to an increase in the demand for bandwidth
?? Opening of domestic long distance traffic for competition and reduction in long
distance tariffs
?? Increase in data traffic due to rise in internet subscribers and due to value added
services like video conferencing etc.

- 23 -


TRAI and CRIS INFAC study

Cumulative annual growth rate of 11% in 5 years from 1993-98 was observed with total
long distance communication traffic estimated at Rs.12,000 Crores.
As per independent rating agency CRIS INFAC: CAGR of 14% for voice traffic for
Domestic Long Distance (DLD) market. Market size for voice and fax traffic is estimated
to be Rs.20,400 Crores by 2004-05. Following tables show the estimated growth in
various sectors:

Estimated Sector Sizes

Estimated Size (Rs.
CAGR
Crores)
TRAI Study:
Long distance voice 11% in last 5 years 12,000
Communication traffic
CRIS INFAC: 14% 20,400 (by 2004-05)
DLD market for voice traffic
ISP/data services market1 67% in next 5 years 5,891 (by 2005)

- Internet access market 75% with no. of Internet 5,392
users to increase from 1.7
to 18 million
- Virtual Private Network 37% in next 5 years 282
- Corporate leased lines 27% in next 5 years 216
National inter circle long 12% 5,508 (by 2005)
distance voice market

1
Consultant’ estimates
s

- 24 -


Bandwidth Demand

2000 2005 2000 (Rs. 2005 (Rs.
CAGR2
(Gbps) (Gbps) Crores) Crores)
Total Market 59% 18 186 801 3,145
ISP 116% 3 142 286 2,284
NLDO 28% 4 13
Basic intra circle 17% 10 23 472 680
Demand
Cellular 52% 1 8 43 181

Technical Plan for Network Deployment

Introduction

Out of the 155 MBPS bandwidth available, Railways will require 2 –8 MBPS and the
remaining capacity will be utilized for providing Internet, STD/ISD services or other
purposes at rural and remote areas.
Under this plan, RCIL will initially provide bandwidth to the service providers as
following:
?? Phase 1: A network connecting the four metros and four other important cities,
viz. Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore will be implemented (10,020
Route Km)
?? Phase 2 – 4: 25,323 Route Km will be covered in the space of seven years3
?? Out of the above, 4,899 Route Km OFC has been laid, 15,163 Route Km is Work
In Progress

2
For the period 2000 - 2005
3
Refer Appendix 2

- 25 -


ISP/NLDO Business
?? To fulfill the roll – out obligation of National Long Distance Operations (NLDO),
RCIL has to establish Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) network on 38,000 Route Km –
35,000 Route Km along the railway tracks (covering 287 out of the 325 Long
Distance Charging Areas (LDCAs)) and the remaining 3,000 Route Km on those
Right of Way (ROW) where it is currently not available with the railways
?? Presently, RCIL plans to lay OFC along 33,000 Route Km only. The remaining
LDCAs will be covered by providing wireless/leasing bandwidth
?? If the communication is extremely poor in certain sections, RCIL will provide the
OFC. However, this will be provided by the corporation and the rentals will be
provided by the Railways on cost plus basis

Estimated Market Share

Segment Market Share Revenue (Rs. Crores)
Backbone Bandwidth Sale 19% 606
- ISP 20% 471
- Basic/ NLDO operators 7.8% 52
- Cellular Services 30% 54
- Corporate Leased Line 13% 29
ISP/Data Services 9.1% (by 2005) 538
Long Distance Voice
9.4% (by 2005) 516
Services
Internet Access Market 7.68% 417
Corporate Virtual Private
24% 67
Network
Leased Lines 25% 54

Railways’Asset Contribution
?? Leasing of ROW will be done. Microwave stations, land and building use will
also be leased to the corporation

- 26 -


?? The valuation of this lease/transfer of assets by the Railways, the Konkan Railway
Corporation and IRCON International Limited (which has OFC network along the
Ahmedabad – Vadodara – Surat section) is at Rs. 606 Crores. The decision on
whether this contribution by the two corporations will be a part of their equity in
RCIL or it will be the Railway’ equity alone with compensation to KRCL and
s
IRCON is to be taken

Asset Contribution Breakup
Rs. (Crores)
Right of Way 375
Optical Fiber Cable 108
Work In Progress 60
Land/ Building 47
Microwave Capacity and Infrastructure 16

Investment

The total investment required for the proposed 33,000 Route Km of OFC is Rs. 3,461
Crores. However, RCIL intends to adopt the Smart Build Approach wherein another
company will be laying the OFC along the railway track using Railway’ ROW in return
s
for the dark fibers to RCIL and thus reducing the cost of building of the network. Though
this introduces another competitor, RCIL hoped to market its telecom products better due
to its reduced network creation cost. With this, RCIL hopes to reduced its investment to
Rs. 2561 Crores and the required year wise investment is as follows:

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Investment 410 146 892 146 547 61 359

RCIL will lay 15,000 Route Km OFC initially on its own and then employ the ‘Smart
Build’Approach. This may put in an additional expenditure of Rs. 182 Crores, which
should be partially offset by a reduction in the cost of electronic equipment.

- 27 -


Initially, Railways will hold 100% equity, which will be reduced to 51% in the short
term. As Railways are transferring their rights and assets worth Rs. 606 Crores, part of
this value of assets will form Railway’ equity and the remaining will be debt.
s
Following are the three options of the debt equity ratio that have been considered by
Railways:
? ? Option 1: Out of assets worth Rs. 606 crores transferred to Railtel, Rs. 350
Crores is kept as debt and the remaining Rs. 256 Crores is equity. Further the
equity to the JV partner is issued at a premium of 1:2. Thus for issue of equity of
Rs.150 Crores, Rs. 300 Crores will be the premium on equity. The requirement of
bridge financing for paying back the debt to the Railways will be Rs. 350 Crores.
The JV will be 62 – 38 in favor of the Railways.
? ? Option 2: Rs. 150 Crores is kept as debt and the remaining Rs. 456 Crores is
equity. Conservatively estimating the JV equity to be at par at Rs. 150 Crores, the
need for bridge financing will be Rs. 150 Crores. The JV will be 67 – 33 in favor
of the Railways.
? ? Option 3: Entire Rs. 606 Crores is kept as equity. The bridge financing
requirements will be zero no debt is being repaid to the Railways. JV partner(s) is
expected to bring Rs. 150 Crores equity at par. The JV will be 67 – 33 in favor of
the Railways.
After due deliberation and the following considerations, option 2 is considered as the best
suitable:
1. In the initial stages, the expectation that the JV partner will be subscribing to the
equity at a premium of 1:2 may not be achievable. As such, option 1 is not
achievable.
2. If the promoters have less equity, the business proposition will not be considered
attractive by the lenders.

Business Financials and Revenue Model for Railtel

- 28 -


As seen above, the Option 2 is considered as the most suitable option. As such, the
financial statements have been developed for Railtel considering this option. Following
are the main features of the revenue model developed for Railtel4.
?? Revenues: Revenues to Railtel comprise of Wholesale Bandwidth sale revenues
and Services Revenues. Wholesale Bandwidth sale revenues constitute revenues
from sale of capacity for long distance voice, sale of capacity to ISPs, sale of
capacity to Cellular operators and sale of capacity for corporate leased lines.
Services revenues include revenues derived from services to NLDO, Corporate
leased lines, Corporate VPN and revenue from retail ISP to corporates. Total
Revenues for Railtel are expected to be 61.66 crores in 2001 and are expected to
grow to Rs. 1660 crores in 2005 and to Rs.2372 crores in 2007.
? ? Profits: Railtel is expected to have negative EBITDA i.e. cash loss to the extent
of Rs.39 crores in 2001. However, it is expected to have cash profit from 2002
onwards. EBITDA is expected to rise from Rs.298 crores in 2002 to Rs.1137
crores in 2005 and to Rs.1680 crores in 2007. Railtel is expected to suffer total
loss to the extent of Rs.201 crores in 2001. It is expected to have Earnings after
tax of Rs.53 crores in 2002 that are expected to increase to Rs.389 crores in 2005
and to Rs.779 crores in 2007.
? ? Net Present Value (NPV): The potential of RCIL in terms of NPV has been
assessed at Rs. 2,775 Crores
? ? Return on equity: On the basis of revenue plan developed on the basis of option 2
as mentioned earlier, return on equity is expected to be 24% by Year 2005.

Implementation Plan
1. The telecom assets and the ROW will be immediately transferred/leased to the
Corporation
2. The Corporation will start completing the missing links for connecting the four
metros viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as well as the four important
cities viz. Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore.

4
For projected income statement of RailTel, refer Appendix 3

- 29 -


3. The Corporation will take IP – II Licence immediately so as to sell the surplus
capacity available on the existing OFC links, which will be transferred, to the
Corporation. The surplus bandwidth on the microwave links will also be
leased/rented to the service providers. This will be transferred to OFC in due
course of time as and when commissioning takes place.
4. The Corporation will apply for NLDO licence as soon as Phase I is completed

Synergy with Railways

RCIL will be serving the communication needs of the Railways by modernizing
Railways’ communication infrastructure. The availability of bandwidth on the railway
stations will facilitate Railways in providing passenger amenities like information
system, reservation through Internet, Internet and STD/ISD kiosks on stations, etc.

Possible Synergies with PSUs of the Department of
Telecommunication

RCIL will have the right of way for creating nationwide optical fiber cable backbone for
becoming a long distance operator. In case of a JV with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
Limited or with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited there will be synergies between the
infrastructure, technical know – how and customer base of MTNL for basic services,
VSNL for internet services and OFC based backbone of RCIL. Such a venture may also
utilize the NLDO licence available with VSNL for providing long distance services.

Competitor Analysis

The following parameters will be utilized to evaluate the competition that RCIL may face
in the future.

- 30 -


Facilities Assessment

The facilities for long distance communication are switches, transmission media and
transmission systems. Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) offers advantages over other
transmission media for DLD carriage. Technological developments are making it
possible to create higher capacities over a single pair of fibers, resulting in connectivity
acquiring greater significance than system capacities. Further, an entity requires Rights
of Way (RoW), if it has to deploy OFC along a route. RoW is a critical asset since it
entails costs and time spent on obtaining approvals from various authorities.

Existing OFC Infrastructure

At present, most of the DLD infrastructure in the country is with DoT, which has
76,000 Rkm of OFC in comparison to 3,000 Rkm with other agencies. The Railways
have approximately 1,500 Rkm of OFC. Basic and cellular licensees have also
established limited infrastructure in their circles, since they are allowed to carry long
distance calls of their subscribers within their service areas. Further, there are certain
organizations that use captive telecommunication networks, mainly for their internal
operational purposes. Railways, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) and
GAIL are principal among these.
In comparison, the state-level infrastructure of private operators is tuned to telecom
traffic requirements. Bharti Telenet Ltd (BTL), the basic operator in Madhya Pradesh,
has around 1,700 Rkm within the state.

Planned Facilities

If plans of all the private network owners (including utilities and operators) fructify by
2003, alternative OFC network in the country will be around 70,000 Rkm. Meanwhile,
as per its perspective plan, DoT plans to add 1,36,000 Rkm of OFC by 2003.
NTP ’ permits usage of existing backbone networks of public and private power
99
transmission companies, Railways, GAIL, ONGC and others immediately for national

- 31 -


long distance data communication and from January 1, 2000 for national long distance
voice communications.

Right of Way (RoW)

Deployment of OFC requires access to space along the routes, since it is a terrestrial
medium. OFC can be laid underground or strung along poles and either option requires
access to ways along routes.
DoT has the RoW due to the statutory authority granted to it by the Indian Telegraph Act.
There are several other organizations with transmission and distribution networks such as
Indian Railways (Railways), State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and, Ministry of Surface
Transport (MOST), which have the RoWs by virtue of their existing networks.
RoW represents an important asset, which the owner could either sell for a price or
leverage to enter the telecom business. MOST charges private operators for deploying
their cables along the National Highways. With organizations such as MOST charging
Rs. 50,000 per km, access to RoW offer considerable cost advantages. Power Grid
Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) is entering into an arrangement with SEBs to
utilise their RoW for creating telecom transmission infrastructure.
A few organizations have access to RoW and therefore are better placed to build
facilities. Also the technological developments are leading to availability of much higher
capacities on a single fiber.

Main Competitors
Department of Telecommunications

DoT’ long distance infrastructure is presented in the following table.
s
DoT Infrastructure

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Transmission Systems

Coaxial (Rkm) 28,439 29,287 30,526 30,957 30,957

- 32 -


Microwave 40,347 43,730 48,697 51,753 54,597 72,592
(Rkm)

UHF (Rkm) 28,716 33,808 39,177 49,301 62,670

Optical Fibre 9,960 16,891 23,333 36,639 52,439 76,261
(Rkm)

Long distance 247.1 294.5 297.2 309.4 365.5 417.2
Circuits (000s)

DoT has stopped using coaxial in its LD infrastructure, and only OFC and Digital
Microwave (DMW) is being used. The standard configuration of OFC deployed by DoT
is 12 and 24 fibres.
As per DoT Perspective Plan, the OFC deployment in the country is envisaged to double
over the next five years. Capacities planned in long distance infrastructure during the plan
period are indicated in the following table.

Planned LD Capacities of DoT

Facility 2000 2002 2005

Microwave (Rkms) 170,054 203,054 241,054

Optical Fibre (Rkm) 123,632 188,632 238,632

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited

PGCIL operates over 31,000 Circuit kms of electricity transmission systems across the
country, which offers 15,500 Rkm of RoW. Currently, the corporation does not have any
optical fibre links, except the Itarsi- Jabalpur link. It has a low capacity (4 kHz) dedicated
Power Line Carrier Communication (PLCC) system for operational use. It also has a

- 33 -


VSAT based closed user group (CUG) network covering 14 sites in the northern regional
grid for voice transmission and MIS.
PGCIL is implementing a communication network to operate the proposed nation-wide
Supervisory Control and Data Acqusition (SCADA) system under a Unified Load
Despatch Scheme (ULDS). The scheme has been drawn up after consolidating the
requirements of all the SEBs. Around 6,700 km of optical fibre and 7,800 km of digital
microwave is planned for the SCADA requirements of PGCIL. The proposed network
will utilise both PGCIL and SEBs’ RoW. PGCIL will manage the network for 15 years,
during which period the SEBs will pay PGCIL a tariff for using the network. After 15
years, the infrastructure will be transferred to the respective SEBs. Details of the
proposed facilities along with the system and spare capacities are given in the following
tables.

Planned Optical Fibre Infrastructure of PGCIL (for SCADA)

Transmission
Spare Capital
Length No. of Spare System Expected
Region Capacity Cost (in
(Km) fibres Fibres Capacity Date
Rs. Cr.)
Mbps

North 1,830 24 18 STM 1; 60 85.62 June 2000
155 Mbps

South 2,436 12/24 6/18 STM 1; 60 92.50 June 2000
155 Mbps

North 895 12 6 STM 1; 60 51.91 Dec 2001
East 155 Mbps

East 1,143 12/24 6/18 16*2 Mbps 10 46.17 June 2003

West 383 24 18 16*2 Mbps 10 13.94 June 2003

TOTAL 6,687 289

- 34 -


Planned Digital Microwave Infrastructure of PGCIL (for SCADA)

Transmission Spare Capital
Length
Region System Capacity Capacity Cost (Rs. Expected date
(Km)
Cr.)

North 2,590 4*2 Mbps NIL 82.52 June 2000

South 944 4*2 Mbps NIL 56.00 June 2000

North East 668 4*2 Mbps 2 28.29 Dec 2001

East 1,975 4*2 Mbps NIL 54.69 June 2003

West 1,643 4*2 Mbps NIL 22.20 June 2003

TOTAL 7,820 244

The key features of the proposed plan, relevant for commercial utilisation include:

?? PGCIL is planning a mix of DMW and OFC technology in its network. DMW is
being used to complement the network and not as a supplement with 8 Mbps
capacity. This implies that no spare capacity will be available for commercial
utilization over DMW. OFC is only being planned for short distances of 200 to
400 km and will offer spare capacity.
?? The stations and power plants are scattered over the country away from urbanized
areas and potential users of the network. The proposed Railways’ network, on the
other hand, passes through most of the major cities and towns making it more
suitable for servicing the long distance user segment.
?? The total length of OFC network planned by PGCIL in the North and South is
likely to be in place by the end of Year 2000, in north-east by 2001 and in East
and West by 2003.

- 35 -


Gas Authority of India Limited

GAIL has an existing 2,000-km HBJ pipeline from Hazira in Gujarat to Jagdishpur in
Uttar Pradesh (UP). This pipeline also passes through Vijaypur in Madhya Pradesh (MP)
and Dadri in UP. Apart from this, GAIL is planning pipelines along the following routes:

?? Loni (Delhi) – Jamnagar via Jaipur, Ajmer
?? Mangalore – Bangalore – Mysore – Erode – Madurai
?? Hyderabad – Vijaywada – Vishakhapatnam

HBJ pipeline services the industrial belt in the North and hence passes through locations
where gas-based power and fertiliser plants are located. Since these plants are normally
located away from major population concentrations, the GAIL spare telecom capacity
does not cover major cities except Delhi. GAIL telecom network is well suited, however,
to cater to the communication needs of major industries lying en route.
Digital Microwave System links the HBJ route with existing capacity of 8 Mbps that can
be enhanced to 16 Mbps. However, the existing HBJ pipeline has SDH-based OFC
system only between Vijaypur and Delhi with a capacity of 8 Mbps, which can be
enhanced to 34 Mbps. The OFC network of GAIL has 12 fibres of which six are required
for the SCADA communication needs of GAIL. Besides the requirement for SCADA,
GAIL has voice communication channels for administrative requirements that utilise the
microwave network.
GAIL’ planned gas pipeline from Jamnagar to Loni covers major towns in Rajasthan
s
and Gujarat. It will run parallel to the Railways route as well as the HBJ pipeline route,
and will have a spare capacity of 14 STM-1 streams, much higher than the spare capacity
in HBJ pipeline. Besides catering to the communication needs of the industries located
enroute, it can carry long distance calls from major cities like Ajmer, Jaipur, Kandla and
Jamnagar, which are along the pipeline. The planned network will have surplus capacity
that can be leased out to other prospective users. The details of existing and planned
infrastructure are presented in the following tables.

- 36 -


Existing Telecommunications Infrastructure of GAIL

Spare
Existing Length Enhanced
System Description Capacity
Capacity (Km) Capacity

Digital Microwave System; 8 Mbps 2,000 16 Mbps 4
1.5 GHz band;
From Hazira – Delhi

OFC-based PDH Network 8 Mbps 550 34 Mbps 12
From Vijaipur (MP) to Dadri
(UP) near Delhi

OFC-based Communication 2 Mbps 30 34 Mbps 15
System

Planned OFC Network of GAIL

Length Equipped Enhanced Spare
System Description
(Km) Capacity Capacity Capacity

OFC-based STM-16 1,280 2.5 Gbps 16 Nos. STM-1 14 STM-1
Network backbone; 3 tributaries. streams;
From Jamnagar (Gujarat) STM-1 1008 E1 circuits; 6 fibres
to Loni (near Delhi) tributaries; 189
E1 circuits;

OFC-based network 550 8 Mbps 155 Mbps; 63 E1 60 E1
Vizag to Secunderabad circuits

OFC-based network 710 8 Mbps 155 Mbps; 63 E1 60 E1
Mangalore to Madurai circuits

- 37 -


Cellular Operators

Cellular operators have around 9,788 Rkm of digital microwave network. They have
indicated individual plans to lay OFC network in their service areas, which collectively
totals 12,000 Rkm.
Based on information provided by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), only
RPG, Tata Cellular and Fascel have indicated 50 percent of their existing capacity as
spare. Further, states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Kerala have two licensed
operators while others have only one. All the operators have plans for installing OFC
networks within their circles. The planned OFC infrastructure is given in the following
table.
Planned OFC Infrastructure of Cellular Operators

Proposed
S. No. Circle Operator
(Rkm)

1 Maharashtra BPL US West 3,000

2 Gujarat Fascel 1,500

3 Andhra Pradesh Tata Cellular 880

4 Kerala BPL US West 1,300

5 Madhya Pradesh RPG 1,000

6 Uttar Pradesh (E) Aircell Digilink 1,015

7 Haryana Aircell Digilink 385

8 Tamil Nadu BPL US West 1,600

9 Rajasthan Aircell Digilink 1,295

Total 11,975

- 38 -


Private Basic Services Operators

At present, there are six licensed basic operators, of which only Bharti Telenet Ltd.
(BTL) has a sizeable OFC network, with 1,717 km in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The
other licensees have not as yet deployed DLD telecommunication networks. BTL’s
network has a spare capacity of two STM-4 streams.
Planned capacity of these six operators is presented in the following table. These
capacities are likely to materialise within two to three years.

Private Basic Services Operators’LD Infrastructure

Organization Circle Future plans Spare Bandwidth

Reliance Telecom Ltd. Gujarat 3,300 km OFC NA
backbone

Essar Comvision Ltd. Punjab 3,000 km of OFC Large but unable to
backbone quantify

Hughes Ispat Ltd. Maharashtra Mix of OFC and 4-16 E1 channels can
microwave between be spared
Mumbai-Pune,
Mumbai-Nasik, Pune-
Kolhapur-Panjim

Shyam Telelink Ltd. Rajasthan 2,900 km of backbone Not Commented

Tata Teleservices Ltd. Andhra Not firmed up yet Not Commented
Pradesh

Bharti Telenet Ltd. Madhya 1,700 Rkm existing 2 STM-4 streams
Pradesh 1,355 Rkm under
implementation

- 39 -


Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL)

The network resources of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) within India include
six international gateways at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Jalandhar and
Ernakulam. These gateways are connected through systems leased from DoT.

OFC Infrastructure of VSNL

Sector Type Capacity

Mumbai – Pune – Arvi OFC 2, 140 Mbps system; expandable

New Delhi – Dehradun DMW NA

SWOT Analysis of RailTel
Strengths:
1. RailTel’ main strength is the Right of Way that railways have. This RoW covers
s
a very wide area and connects all the major cities in India. As such, Railways has
advantage over its competitors like PGCIL, GAIL, basic cellular services
operators in terms of the coverage.
2. Railways have considerable experience in handling the communication networks
since it has been handling the communication and signal equipment for internal
use.
3. RailTel has been established as a separate corporation under the Companies Act.
As such, it has advantage of operating as a corporation separate from Railways.

Weaknesses: Though railways have the experience of handling communication network,
it does not have the prior experience of commercial handling of telecommunications
network.

Opportunities: RailTel has a good opportunity in terms of the projected growth in the
market.

- 40 -


Threats:
1. Technological obsolescence due to newer technologies evolving in OFC
2. Government Policies may not remain favorable

- 41 -


Railway-IT Interface around the Globe

The study of railway-IT interface in developed and undeveloped countries has great
implications for the Indian railway industry. The knowledge about use of information
technology in railway operations around the globe would help us improve our rail
transportation and would enhance prompt commodity movements. Thus there is a great
need to enhance and put into effect such information technology, adding that cooperation
in unifying different national railway systems would be a valuable advance for the
globalisation and liberalization processes. Three different systems have been studied here
and they have very interesting applications that could be used in the Indian context.

South and East Africa

About the use of information technology in railway operations in South and East Africa,
the Deputy Managing Director of TRANSNET, says the national railway operator of
South Africa, SPOORNET, has developed a rail computer network from which all the
countries of the region were benefiting. The southern railways operate a common rail
system based on the "Cape gauge". About eleven southern and eastern African countries
were linked and long-term strategies for those railways are in major flux, due to plans for
restructuring, commercialisation, and privatisation. The boom in mining in Tanzania and
Congo, economic growth in Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique, and increased global trade
through the Indian Ocean have resulted in large volumes of rail-friendly traffic to and
from inland destinations where road transport was often not viable.
There are rail strategies aimed at providing reliable, cost-effective means of gaining a
share of that traffic. Intermodal operation through alliances with road carriers to provide
door-to-door service is also being pursued. Of late, there has been consensus that
railways would not survive if they continued to take for granted their previous privileged
status as national carriers. Diagnosis of the long-term future of the transport industry
worldwide had indicated a slow but steady decline in the types of commodities, which
had traditionally sustained railways. Effective responses to this included aggressive cost
reduction, extending reach to value-added services beyond the railhead, and penetration

- 42 -


of growing markets for intermodal higher-value finished goods, with alliances playing a
key role.
Thus was proposed the introduction of a computer-network rail tracking technology
system, in which an expeditor could trace the destination and full information on any
merchandise until delivery. Such hour-by-hour inspection of commercial containers
would enable exporters to assure the security of their merchandise and guarantee its
prompt arrival. Likewise, the network was beneficial for goods transported by ships and
transferred to rail or road carriers.
The necessity of creating intermodal systems and the cost pressure behind the trend
would require more rational rail transportation and transhipment. Intermodal systems
need electronic media, globalisation of economic rules and information, and the removal
of customs barriers. Rail transportation had been improved thanks to high technology
introduced by such companies as Siemens and TSS. Such firms had built integrated
systems providing solutions for locomotive transport and satellite guiding systems. New
regulations by States had also promoted the creation and adoption of new technology.

East Japan Railway Company (JR East)

The utilization of information technology for innovations in railway operations and
improvements in customer service has been one of the main driving forces behind the
establishment of computer systems at JR East. In July 1987, under the direction of the
company's first president, Mr. Yamashita, the "Office Automation Promotion'' project
was launched and work for the establishment of a "Integrated Management Information
System'' was begun. Operation of the three main systems, "Station based Point of Sales
System'', "Expense Management System'', and "Integrated Railway Operation System''
started in 1989 - 90.
The scale of JR East computer systems has increased by leaps and bounds ever since.
During the 10 years since its establishment, the company has rapidly developed computer
systems for business management. With the computer system supporting the
administration of the company topping the list, computers at present are utilized in
various sections, including general affairs and accounting, business operations,
transportation and facilities related areas and related businesses. The large scale of the

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company's overall computer system becomes apparent when expressed numerically. The
total system comprises 29 host computers, 16,000 terminals, approximately 70 megasteps
of software, and approximately 2 terabytes of files.
To give a brief overall outline of computer systems at JR East, the computers in operation
at JR East can be categorized by system into the following three groups:
1. Train operation related systems:
Systems in this category are employed for the daily operation of trains, and for the
operation and maintenance of facilities along railway routes. In these systems the
train operation transmitting operation schedules to the respective sites, as well as
for the daily management of transport operations, the operation of trains, the
supervision of operation staff and for other transportation service related tasks. In
other words, the overall system is constructed with the railway operation schedule
database at the center of all transportation-planning operations.
In addition, all data pertaining to the tracks and the facilities along the railway
routes, including electric power facilities, signals and communication facilities,
are compiled into a database and used by maintenance personnel for management
of facilities during daily inspections and repair work. A command system capable
of such functions as sending out alarms during emergencies and supporting
recovery work in case of accidents has also been set up, to be used by the
facilities supervisory personnel who control facilities management operations
from the centre.
2. Customer related systems:
The second category comprises computer systems employed in areas within the
railway business and related businesses, which involve dealing with customers.
These systems, in which customer related information is compiled into databases,
are utilized in carrying out business related operations such as the introduction
and sale of travel related products and services, introduction of the various
projects connected with the "View card'', business credit card issued by the
company, the sale of commuting tickets to business customers, and so on.

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The system also makes possible the management and calculation of revenues, on
a per day basis, by adding the total amount of sales proceeds from all the stations
in JR East area as put together by the Station based POS (Point of Sales) System
and the total amount of income from the sales of various types of reserved tickets,
compiled by MARS (Multiple Access Reservation System). It also enables the
enterprise to settle accounts with other companies on a daily basis and calculate
the company's net earnings. It is expected that marketing tactics, using the above
mentioned customer information database, will play an important role in the
future, as the company pursues its various strategic business policies.
3. Business operation related systems:
The last of the three categories comprises systems, which support the planning of
management strategies and decision-making processes, directly tied to the
administration of the company. The overall system comprises a management
related database containing information considered necessary for the management
of the company, extracted from the two above databases. In addition to providing
company executives with the information necessary to run the company, the
system also provides each of the departments in the headquarters and the branch
offices with the various data necessary for carrying out office business.
Systems in this category include the executive data management system which
stores data pertaining to executive meetings, a system for tracking expenditures
by the various sections of the company, a database capable of constantly
providing information in areas such as the company's current status of earnings,
the number of passengers getting on and off trains, and so on. In addition, there is
also an office based computer network providing offices with e-mail services,
bulletin boards, as well as the means to reserve meeting rooms and carry out other
daily tasks.
To outline a few examples of Systems in Operation, we have the following
(i) COSMOS (Computerized Safety, Maintenance and Operation Systems of
Shinkansen) In this system computers are employed to assist in a series of
Shinkansen related tasks, such as Shinkansen operation planning, operation,
supervision, management of facilities, and control of electric power systems.

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The system is used daily to ensure the safety and reliability of Shinkansen
services.
(ii) Green Information System
The system compiles a database from information pertaining to needs and
opinions expressed by customers, obtained from such sources as stations and
newspapers. The information is made available at all times, through computer
terminals at the company headquarters and other locations, and is utilized and
reflected in improvements made to station facilities, train accommodations,
and in the way the staff deal with customers, as well as in making
improvements in the planning of transportation and other services and
operations.
(iii) Travel Operations Related System
The System enables JR East to carry out its travel related business operations
in the same manner as large travel agencies. The system is utilized for the
registration and sale of travel related products and services, for making
reservations and automatically providing related facilities with reservation
information as well as for supervising the selection of products and services
offered, retrieving various types of information and so on. Currently a
database containing customer related information is being compiled, and the
system is undergoing downsizing and other improvements, which include
fitting the system with the latest model terminals.
(iv) Card System
The system supports operations related to "View Card'', the credit card offered
by JR East. It is used for issuing the cards, settling accounts, analysing the
status of card related business operations and managing customer information,
as well as for the retrieval of various kinds of data.
(v) Facilities Management System
By compiling data related to facilities along the railway into a database and
enabling the use of the information during daily inspections and repair work,
the system helps make facilities maintenance work more efficient.5. Future
Plans for the Systems

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As a first step, timed to coincide with the scheduled renovation of the system, the
management is planning the downsizing of the hardware and restructuring of the system's
functions. These changes are expected to reduce system related costs and improve
performance. Next, they would like to reorient their priorities, in order to build a system
that not only seeks to achieve reductions of labor and increase efficiency, but also can
also contribute to the strengthening of the enterprise and help the company plan business
strategies. This would mean a shift from a criterion that stresses speed to one that stresses
the information and functional qualities of the system, one that can support the company
in its efforts to reform its operations. This would entail changing the present vertical
structure of the system, which stresses individual functions, and promoting the
integration of the system's database resources, so as to build a horizontally structured and
more integrated system, enabling the creation of strategic management policies and the
creative pursuit of business operations.
One concrete step in this regard is the plan to introduce a new office computer system
employing the latest technologies in groupware, etc., to coincide with the company's
move to its new headquarters next autumn, with the aim of achieving even greater
efficiency in the way office business is carried out.
Furthermore, in order to establish a new channel between them and their customers, they
are also pursuing plans to set up a customer related information database and a business
oriented system capable of employing the database to set forth more effective business
strategies.
By pursuing the reconstruction of the company's computer resources, East Japan Railway
Company will be in a better position to realize its aim of becoming an integrated provider
of services, which aim to improve the quality of life as they enter the 21st century. They
hope that their efforts will lead to the greater satisfaction of their customers and the
greater happiness of their employees.

- 47 -

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