Indian Railways has approved the provision of a four by 48 optical fibre cable (OFC) backbone in the Ahmedabad and Ratlam Divisions of Western Railway at a total cost of Rs 3983.6 million (mn). The project was sanctioned to strengthen digital connectivity and to support the implementation of Kavach and other modern signalling systems. The approval forms part of broader efforts to upgrade communication infrastructure across the network.

As part of the work, two by 48 fibre OFC cables will be laid over 1929 Route kilometres (RKm) across Western Railway, including 1456 RKm in Ahmedabad Division and 473 RKm in Ratlam Division. The installation will create a resilient backbone for data transmission and will improve redundancy and capacity on these routes. The work is expected to be executed in phases with minimal disruption to services.

The project has been approved under the umbrella work titled Provision of Kavach with communication backbone of Long Term Evolution (LTE) on balance routes of Indian Railways for Umbrella Work 2024–25, which carries an overall sanctioned cost of Rs 276.93 billion (bn) under the Works Programme (PH-33). A sub-umbrella work for Western Railway has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 28 billion (bn), under which this project has been taken up.

The augmentation is expected to enhance capacity, reliability and efficiency of railway communication systems and to support modern signalling deployments. It will facilitate seamless data exchange required for safety critical applications and is intended to improve operational efficiency for passenger and freight services. The initiative is described as a further step towards modernisation, safety enhancement and digital transformation of Indian Railways. Stakeholders are expected to benefit from improved communications and reduced response times to operational incidents.