Hughes gets VSAT hub order for Indian Rlys

New Delhi: Hughes announced that it has won an order to set up the first dedicated VSAT hub for the Indian Railways.

This would allow the Indian Railways to offer a host of applications such as Disaster Communication System, Accident Relief Train (ART), Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) and Freight Operating Information System (FOIS) in remote locations.

In addition, the railways is also planning to introduce Internet access on trains and is currently undertaking a proof of concept in one of the trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The commissioning of the dedicated VSAT hub, will allow the Railways to connect 1,000 locations (across 19 States) against 200 earlier. Disaster Communication System and UTS terminals are critical applications for the Railways. Once successful, this will help the Railways in proliferating UTS terminals to remote areas and city centres, and quick establishment of communication system at disaster management site.

For disaster management, the Railways has already planned Hughes VSAT terminals that will allow quick tracking and establishment of communication at accident sites in less than 15-20 minutes.

These terminals will be installed in one Accident Relief Train (ART) for each of the 67 divisions in the Indian Railways.

Speaking on the development, Mr K. Krishna, Assistant Vice-President Marketing, Hughes India, said, “We have been working with the Indian Railways for the last two years by supporting them to run their FOIS applications on the hired hub”.