As part of the “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, C-DOT, the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India and RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., Ministry of Railways, Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at C-DOT, Delhi campus on 14th October, 2021 with the objective of working together in the diverse areas of Telecom with key focus on the modernization & expansion of Communication Networks across the country.
The MOU signing ceremony was attended by Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director, C-DOT and Shri Puneet Chawla, CMD, RailTel in the presence of other senior officers of both the organizations. The signing of MOU will help both the organizations leverage each other’s expertise in their respective domains.
C-DOT has indigenously designed various cutting-edge Telecom technologies spanning Switching, Optical, Wireless, Network Management & Security domains and innovative solutions that are successfully deployed in national networks including those of strategic importance.
RailTel a “Mini Ratna (Category-I)” Central Public Sector Enterprise, is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network of 60,000 RKM covering several towns & cities and rural areas of the country. With its Pan India high-capacity network, RailTel is working towards creating a knowledge society at various fronts and has been selected for implementation of various mission-mode projects for the Government of India in the telecom field.
Speaking at the event, Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director, C-DOT said that C-DOT is keen on aligning its indigenous Telecom R&D endeavours with the specific requirements of RailTel for meeting the overreaching objectives of national development. Both the organisations have complementary strengths that will bring great synergy in meeting specific goals of modernizing & expanding nationwide communication networks and meeting customer demands. C-DOT brings its R&D expertise in designing state-of-the-art indigenous technologies and RailTel has a ready market for deploying these solutions. This will usher in an all-inclusive growth by achieving synergy as envisioned by Hon’ble PM in his “Gati Shakti” program.
Shri Puneet Chawla, CMD, RailTel remarked that the synergy between C-DOT and RailTel will help in providing affordable broadband services to the masses in the rural areas by lowering the cost of equipment since all this will be “Make in India” using C-DOT’s home-grown technology. RailTel is also in the process of rolling out services under PM-WANI program. All this will strengthen the national networks and boost seamless connectivity which will bolster the foundation of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. C-DOT has also developed indigenous solutions for LTE and DWDM and we hope to utilize these solutions for rolling out services for the proposed LTE/4G network for Indian Railways for high-speed mobile communication corridor.
C-DOT and RailTel reiterated their firm commitments towards building indigenous capabilities for the digital transformation of the country as part of the celebration of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”.
*****
RKJ/M
