IRCON International Limited on behalf of Northern Railway has issued Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to M/s. RailTel Corporation of India Limited, for “Design, Supply, Installation, Testing & Commissioning of Tunnel Communication system consisting of Emergency Call & Service Telephone, CCTV, Tunnel Radio and PA System in Tunnel Environment on Dharam-Banihal section of Jammu Kashmir Rail Link Project under Ferozepur division of Northern Railway.
- Awarded Value: INR 210.77 Crore
In July this year, IRCON invited tenders for Tender Reference Number: IRCON/1014/TUNNELCOMM.
About the Project:
- The USBRL (Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link) is a National project undertaken by the Indian Railways for construction of a broad-gauge railway line through the Himalayas with the aim of connecting the Kashmir region with the rest of the country.
- The all-weather, comfortable, convenient and cost effective mass transportation system will be the catalyst for the overall development of the northernmost alpine region of the country.
- Construction of the first three phases of the project has been completed and the line is in operational use for running of trains between Baramulla-Banihal in Kashmir valley and Jammu-Udhampur-Katra in Jammu region.
- Work on the intervening 111 Km section Katra-Banihal, the most arduous and treacherous portion due to its geology and extensive riverine system replete with deep gorges is ongoing.
- There are several iconic bridges and tunnels coming up in this section.
- Most of the rail track is slated to be in tunnels or bridges in this section.
- In the absence of an effective surface transport system in this in-hospitable region, Railways had to first lay access roads to the tune of 205 Km to reach the construction sites.
- Three agencies; IRCON, KRCL and Northern Railway with extensive experience in construction of rail lines are involved in this project.
- Many international agencies and premier Indian institutes like IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi, DRDO and Geological Survey of India are providing expertise in planning and implementation.
- Several sets of tunnelling machineries and cranes have also been imported.
About RailTel:
RailTel, a “Mini Ratna (Category-I)” Central Public Sector Enterprise is an ICT provider and one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network on exclusive Right of Way (ROW) along Railway track. The OFC network covers all important towns & cities of the country and several rural areas.
- Presently, the optic fiber network of RailTel covers over 55,000 route kilometers and covers 5,677 railway stations across towns and cities in India.
- RailTel is an ISO certified company.
- Its operations are certified with various certifications including ISO 9001:2015, ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and CMMI Level-4 for its quality management systems, information security management systems, and service management systems, respectively RailTel has a strategic relationship with the Indian Railways and it undertakes a wide variety of projects including provision of mission critical connectivity services such as video surveillance system at stations and within trains, ‘e-Office’ services and implementing short haul connectivity between stations and long haul connectivity to support various organizations within the Indian Railways.
- RailTel also undertakes various passenger services including content on demand services and Wi-Fi across major railway stations in India.
About IRCON International Limited:
- IRCON International Limited (IRCON), a Schedule “A” & Mini Ratna-I Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU), incorporated by the Ministry of Railways, Central government, under the Companies Act, 1956 on 28th April 1976 originally under the name Indian Railway Construction Company Limited.
- IRCON is an integrated engineering and construction company in India operating since last 44 years with specialization in major turnkey infrastructure projects, including Railways, Roads, Highways, Bridges, Flyovers, Tunnels, Aircraft maintenance hangars, Runways, EHV sub-stations, Metro & MRT, and others.
Source: IRCON-Tender Update | Image Credit (representational): MoR
