Anand Singh Chandel, General Manager, RailTel
RailTel Corporation of India Limited was established in 2000 as a Schedule A public sector undertaking (PSU) to monetise and modernise train operations and safety systems through state-of-the-art communication network infrastructure. Subsequently, in 2002-03, it was awarded an IP-2 licence to start commercial operations to lease bandwidth to private telcos. RailTel has grown over the years, expanding its portfolio to include a countrywide optical fibre cable (OFC) network, a data centre, a service operations centre and commercial network operations centres with system integration capabilities.
Operational highlights
The company operates four central network operations centres, situated in Delhi, Mumbai, Secunderabad and Chennai. Since its inception, RailTel has leveraged Indian Railways’ extensive optical fibre network as the foundation for its services, growing its fibre network from 25,000 km in 2000 to more than 62,000 km in 2025, along with an additional 21,000 km of access network. Its fibre infrastructure also extends to the coal sector, connecting all Coal India companies.
RailTel operates Tier III-certified data centres in Gurugram and Secunderabad and offers RailCloud, a public cloud service empanelled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It also has a dedicated security operations centre. In addition, it is developing over 100 edge data centres across Tier II and III towns to extend its cloud and information and communication technology (ICT) services.
Service portfolio
RailTel offers services such as dark fibre leasing, tower co-location, leased lines, internet bandwidth, broadband, virtual private networks and retail broadband. Its data centre services include infrastructure-as-a-service, software-as-a-service, telepresence-as-a-service, security operations centre as-a-service and Adhaar authentication. Other services include ICT services, OFC projects, railway signalling, tunnel communication, hospital management information system projects and smart cities.
RailTel has also developed critical railway communication infrastructure, including systems for railway tunnels, automatic signalling and electronic interlocking. It is currently involved in the development of the KAVACH railway safety system, which will see the largest fibre deployments, along railway tracks, over the next five to ten years.
The firm follows an Indigenisation, Innovation and Modernisation (IIM) strategy, prioritising Make in India products and collaboration with Indian manufacturers.
With around 6,112 railway points of presence nationwide, RailTel has a significant opportunity to expand fixed wireline broadband into rural areas, with nearly 100,000 villages within 5 km of these stations. It has connected over 6,000 railway stations with Wi-Fi, more than 90 per cent of which are in rural locations, creating strategic hubs for broader broadband outreach through partnerships with local agencies and entrepreneurs.
Bottlenecks and solutions
Although mobile broadband usage is growing, fixed broadband has seen stagnant or marginal growth over the past few years. While India has ample backhaul capacity
the real bottleneck lies in the city access network. RailTel faces similar challenges and has addressed them by forming partnerships with over 10,000 local cable operators. This collaboration has helped expand its RailWire broadband service, now ranked 13th overall and 4th in rural broadband connections.
To deliver low-cost, high-bandwidth broadband to the masses, collaboration with stakeholders is crucial through opportunities like infrastructure sharing. Unfortunately, such partnerships remain limited in scale as most players prefer to build and maintain their own infrastructure, resulting in service delays and high capex.
Adding to this, strengthening wireline infrastructure and over-the-top (OTT) services will pave the way for a creator economy, one where India generates and distributes its own content, rather than merely consuming it.
The way forward
With increasing digitisation, communication now predominantly occurs through digital platforms. States are developing their own networks to connect with citizens, but these initiatives require substantial investment. Collaborations with private enterprises
offer a more cost-effective way to connect the population at scale. In this context, fibre should be considered a national asset.
India has yet to achieve the desired level of collaboration. Partnerships are essential to bridging the urban-rural digital divide. They not only lower costs but also enhance service delivery. Reliable internet is crucial for productivity, enabling local economic activity and giving individuals access to new avenues of work. This directly supports the goals of the Digital India initiative.
Based on a presentation by Anand Singh Chandel, General Manager, RailTel at a tele.net conference on OFC Networks in India.
