ECONOMY RailTel rakes in Rs 33.28 cr. profit in 2006-07
30 June, 2007 at 0000 hours IST, The Financial Express

NEW DELHI:

Coming out from the red for the first time in the seven years of its existence, RailTel, the railway ministry's telecom arm, booked a net profit of Rs 33.28 crore in 2006-07. Announcing this, managing director of Railtel, KK Bajpayee said on Friday, "Our net income in the last fiscal stood at Rs 113.29 crore, against the Rs 60.44 crore we earned in 2005-06."

The reversal in fortunes is significant, given that the government had last year identified RailTel as among the 89 under-performing public sector units, which may be referred to the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises for examination. To ensure that it continues making profits, RailTel is also planning to diversify into other business activities.

For starters, it is planning to install advanced Wi-Fi systems at 500 railway stations across the country. “While we are preparing to install Wi-Fi System at 500 stations across the country, we will start the facility at 50 stations,” Bajpayee said. He said one such system would be first provided at Bangalore railway station, which would be operational within the next 2-3 months, followed by Jaipur.

For the venture, RailTel has signed a memorandum of agreement with "Airlink", a Bangalore-based company. Airlink has signed an agreement with US-based Rontog to provide technical know-how for the system. The railway PSU is also planning to use its optical fibre cable (OFC) and MPLS network.

It is in the process of shifting passenger reservation system, Freight Operations Information system, Unreserved Ticketing System, for train operations and control communication on the OFC and MPLS network of RailTel, Bajpayee said.

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