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KRC ready to sell excess telecom capacity

The Konkan Railway Corporation has invited businesses to utilise its spare telecommunications capacity.

T O D A Y

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The KRC has a lot of spare capacity in its 920-kilometre-long optical fibre cable line and 'quad copper' cable line between New Bombay and Mangalore.

KRC Managing Director B Rajaram told a meeting organised by the Indian Merchants' Chamber that his company has set up OFC facility at a cost of Rs 420 million and quad cable facility at a cost of Rs 130 million, keeping in view growth needs.

KRC has set up an intranet to absorbing the installed cable capacity and to partially meet present needs. ''We are now in a position to spare our surplus capacity to hire out to corporations. Already, we have hired out a portion of our cables in Mangalore to Modi Telecom,'' he said.

Rajaram disclosed that KRC has also introduced a ro-ro service for hauling loaded trucks between New Bombay and Mangalore.

''A truck can now reach Mangalore from New Bombay within 24 hours. If the truck were to drive on its own, it would have taken at least 72 hours in the normal course. You can imagine the tremendous benefit that will accrue to truck operators as a result of saving in diesel, man-hour, wear-and-tear, besides faster turnover,'' he said.

The government recently permitted railways to lease out railway cable network to private operators for setting up telecommunication projects.

UNI

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