RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., a Navratna Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under Ministry of Railways, that provides Information Communication and Technology (ICT) services has partnered with the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), another state-owned company, to develop data centers. The two have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build data centers across the country as well as abroad over the next five years.
In a press release, RailTel explained, “Under the terms of the MoU, RailTel and NBCC will work jointly to execute Data Centre projects from concept to commissioning, combining their core competencies and operational strengths. RailTel will be responsible for planning, designing, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, and operations & maintenance of IT-related infrastructure for data centers, including computing hardware, security systems, network systems, disaster recovery planning, and more. NBCC will provide comprehensive project management services for the construction of data center buildings and associated civil and passive infrastructure. This includes contract management, construction supervision, cost control, quality assurance, and project handover activities.”
The collaboration also envisions joint development of IT and IT-enabled service (ITES) infrastructure projects in international markets including, but not limited to, Vietnam, Mauritius, UAE, and African countries. Each project will be governed by a separate agreement and executed with mutual consent, allowing for inclusion of third-party partners where necessary.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Sanjai Kumar, CMD of RailTel; K.P. Mahadevaswamy, CMD of NBCC; Raj Kumar Chaudhary, CMD of NHPC Ltd.; Dr. Devesh Tyagi, CEO of NIXI; Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, IPS, Addl. CP Delhi; Rajeev Ranjan, Retd., IAS, TN; and senior officials from their organizations.
Readers would recall that in September 2024, RailTel had revealed ambitious plans to build 100 edge data centers in smaller cities and towns across India. Among its various ICT services, RailTel provides dedicated and manages hosting services, as well as colocation data center services. Its cloud service Railcloud is empanelled with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt of India.RailTel is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in India and an end-to-end IT &ICT service provider. RailTel has extensive optical fibre network of 62,000 RKM along the railway tracks, a 21,000 KM citywide access network, 11000+ Point of Presence (PoPs) and 1,100 telecom towers across India. RailTel has also created one of the world’s largest integrated public Wi-Fi networks, offering services at 6,112 railway stations across the country.
