Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman V. Narayanan on Monday offered the Indian Railways access to the “spare transponder capacity” on existing communication satellites to strengthen its signalling and communication systems.
“We are ready for any kind of contract with the Railways. We will be tripling our number of satellites, including three more navigation and communication satellites adding to the existing four,” he told railway engineers at the 68th annual day celebrations of IRISET (Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering & Telecommunications) here in Secunderabad.
ISRO has also mapped potential flood-prone zones across the country, which policymakers can use to avoid routing new railway lines or roads through vulnerable areas, he said. The chairman added that he wants all running trains to be connected in real time, in addition to the 10,000 already linked. He also outlined ISRO’s long-term goals, including an indigenous space station by 2035 and a human mission to the moon on an Indian rocket by 2040.
IRISET director general Sharad Kumar Srivastava said the Centre of Excellence had played a played a pivotal role in fast-tracking Kavach, the indigenous automatic train protection system deployed across Indian Railways.
It had also developed a universal braking algorithm, upgraded existing Kavach labs to Version 4.0, created a national knowledge management portal, etc. A record number of 8,462 trainees took part in 310 courses this year with 4,364 personnel trained in Kavach technology, he said.
All training labs in the institute have been upgraded with modern IT systems. Faculty development programmes were also conducted to align training with emerging technologies such as LTE/5G, cyber security and AI, he said.
SCR general manager Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Railway Board Additional Member (Signal) Rajesh Kumar Pandey and Additional Member (Telecom) Shailesh Gupta called for effective deployment of technologies to match the enhanced capital expenditure on infrastructure creation and maintenance. Railway Board chairman and CEO Satish Kumar spoke virtually from New Delhi highlighting the importance of signal and telecommunications in railway operations.
Later, Mr. Narayanan gave away prizes to the top ranking trainees in various categories. Technical magazine ‘Gyandeep’ was released on the occasion. IRISET additional D-G P.V. Rajshekar also spoke.
Published – November 25, 2025 01:28 am IST
