The Indian Railways yesterday kicked off its telecom venture signing two separate agreements with Ircon International and RITES for laying 3,300 km of optical fibre cables along rail tracks.
Ircon and RITES, both public sector undertakings (PSUs), will provide telecom services to the railways and market surplus capacity to private sector.
RITES has already signed a memorandum of understanding with BPL while Ircon is in the process of negotiating with other private companies.
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The railways will also receive 20 per cent of the profits made by the two PSUs.
Ircon and RITES have been authorised to enter into joint ventures while keeping a minimum of 50 per cent equity with themselves.
Ircon will lay cable lines along the 1,400 km Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai section while RITES will lay the cables along the 1,900 km Mumbai-Pune-Chennai route.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, railway board chairman V K Agarwal assured the two PSUs of all possible support from Indian Railways during the laying of the optical fibre cables.