New Delhi, April 4 (IANS). The Central Government has approved a project worth Rs 398.36 crore to strengthen the railway network in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The Railway Ministry said on Saturday that optical fiber cable will be laid on 1,929 km route in Ahmedabad and Ratlam divisions of Western Railway.
According to the Railway Ministry, in this project, 2×48 fiber optical cable will be laid on 1,456 km route in Ahmedabad division and 473 km route in Ratlam division.
This work is part of a larger plan of Rs 27,693 crore under the Works Program for 2024-25 to create a Long Term Evolution (LTE) based communication network for the ‘Kavach’ system across the entire railway network.
Apart from this, a separate sub-project worth Rs 2,800 crore has been sanctioned for Western Railway, under which this work will be done.
The new communication system will support the modern signaling system of the Railways, make data transmission easier and improve the operational efficiency and reliability of trains.
‘Kavach’ is an automatic train protection system indigenously developed by Indian Railways, designed to prevent train collisions. This system automatically applies brakes in case of signal miss or two trains coming face to face.
Following the train accidents in recent years, the government has stressed on rapid implementation of the ‘Kavach’ system.
Additionally, the government has approved spending of over Rs 34,000 crore in the last three years to improve passenger amenities, including crowd management at stations.
According to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Rs 9,392 crore in 2023-24, Rs 12,884 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 12,018 crore in 2025-26 have been allocated to improve passenger amenities.
He told Parliament that out of 76 congested railway stations in the country, 23 permanent holding areas are being created in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh so that passengers can have a smooth travel experience.
–IANS
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