RailTel, the telecom arm of Railways, is set to provide optical fibre-based broadband network in neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan.

"We are in the process of getting the Rs 80-crore job for providing broadband network in Bangladesh and Rs 10 crore worth contract in Bhutan," said a senior RailTel official.

RailTel was created in September 2000 to support mobile telecom service providers and provide broadband services especially in rural and remote corners of the country.

Till now, 42,000 km rail route has been covered by the OFC network in the country and RailTel is in the process of covering an additional 10,000 km route, he said.

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has cleared the expansion of the optic fibre cable network in the northeast.

"RailTel is being given the northeast project for laying the network in about 50,000 gram panchayats," the official said.

There is a serious bandwidth constraint in the northeast.

The project entails laying about 10,000 km of optical fibre cable across the northeast (excluding Assam) to create a bulk bandwidth resource that will be shared by all IT and telecom service providers operating in the region.

RailTel is playing a key role in national optical fibre network for providing broadband connectivity in the country.

The state-owned agency has leased its services, including a technology called the next generation network, to various corporates also.

"Besides, our broadband network solution is being used in disaster management, train controlling services and maintenance services in trains," he said.