Telecommunications on Indian Railways

Abstract

The paper describes the present status of telecommunication on the Indian Railways and the need for both shorthaul communication connecting stations and activity centre with their controlling points as well as station to station communication, along with longhaul communication connecting divisional and zonal headquarters. The future planning of communication on Indian Railways into the 21st century envisages an integrated approach to cater for the immediate needs of voice and data communication including requirements for the Freight Operations Computerised systems, passenger reservation system etc and to provide the infrastructure for other services to be introduced progressively such as communication between the train and fixed stations, driver to guard, mobile telephone services and message switching systems etc. The transmission media proposed to be used is a mix of digital Microwave, optical fibre, point to multipoint TDMA radio and satellite systems using SCPC and micro earth stations. The type of equipment will be required by Indian Railways in future have also been listed.