RailTel eyes ₹4,000-5,000-crore revenue from Kavach projects, tie-ups with OEMs.

RailTel Corporation of India, an ICT provider and one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country with pan-India optic fibre network, is looking to participate in upcoming Kavach projects of the Indian Railways.

Kavach is an automatic train protection system - an anti-collision device - indigenously developed by the Indian Railways through Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO).

According to Sanjai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, RailTel, the total size of the projects – LTE and Kavach roll out – over the next five years could be around ₹30,000 crore. And the “pie” (revenue) from the Railway projects are at least ₹4,000-5,000-crore, is what the company is targeting.

“We have participated in proof of concept for LTE for Kavach and we are expecting a centre of excellence - basically establishment of a centre of excellence - in the Railways. That order, we are expecting,” he had said during a post earnings call.

Kumar pointed out that one of the OEMs (Orignal Equipment Manufacturers) are in the last phase of getting approved by RDSO. And beside that OEM, RailTel is also approaching the existing ones.

“Though they are very big, but we are still trying to approach them so that they are convinced that yes, RailTel can be the best partner for them. So we are still on and we are very much hopeful of getting a good share out of this business from Railways,” he said.

Kavach initially had four OEMs (suppliers) and the number has recently been increased to six, a senior Railway official told businessline .

RailTel would look to take part in both the hardware part and “application” (software rollout) part of the Kavach projects. “There is hardware part of it. There is application part of it. All those things will also be there. Connectivity is, of course, there,” he said adding that RailTel would only participate in upcoming projects; and not the ones which have already been rolled out.

HBL