3,600 mandays invested for G20 Summit IT infra: RailTel

NEW DELHI: RailTel, which was entrusted to provide uninterrupted telecom services and cyber security solutions for the G20 Summit, said more than 3,600 mandays were invested to come up with an information technology infrastructure of global standards for the two-day mega event.

The IT solution provider under the railways ministry said the integrated telecom network at the 122-acre ITPO campus at Pragati Maidan, particularly at the newly inaugurated summit venue Bharat Mandapam, entailed a massive infrastructure with 1,675 indoor antennas, over 35 kms of radio frequency cable and 25 kms of fibre cables.

The summit of the influential grouping was held on September 9 and 10.

In a statement, RailTel said that "over 3,600 mandays were invested by RailTel and its partners to establish cutting-edge mobile network infrastructure and a neutral in-building telecom infrastructure...".

It added that as part of the project, WiFi infrastructure was strategically placed in outdoor corridors, covering the various halls slated for G20 events, and the back-end IT infrastructure for WiFi access was seamlessly integrated with the indoor WiFi infrastructure. RailTel deployed a "secure and robust telecom infrastructure, ensuring on-demand wired internet", the statement said. RailTel also provided passive infrastructure to telcos and provisioned internet bandwidth from two internet up-streams through five different physical paths, it added.

The statement said RailTel deployed required cyber security solutions to secure network infrastructure, including secure configuration management, firewall deployment and intrusion prevention systems, to prevent unauthorised access and activities within the event's network environment.

"RailTel coordinated with CDAC, CERT-IN, NIC and MHA, under the guidance of the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs), to deliver safe and resilient telecom solutions for G20," it said, adding that the entire project was supported by the Department of Telecom for ensuring closer coordination with mobile service providers.

End-to-end bandwidth to integrate camera feeds from the Bharat Mandapam, the Rajghat area, the New Delhi Parliament Street to the Delhi Police Headquarters on Jai Singh Marg was also provided.

This seamless connectivity enabled the Delhi Police and other key security agencies to closely and pro-actively monitor the security for G20 events and movement of G20 delegations along dedicated routes across Delhi, it said.

CMD, RailTel, Sanjai Kumar, said, "It was a very challenging as well as rewarding work for us. Despite a plethora of roadblocks our team as well as our partners, completed the work and made the telecom infra ready on time." "The success of this project is going to further motivate the team to work even harder with more dedication in future towards the digital transformation journey of the country, emerging as an even stronger digital partner," the official said.

"RailTel took the challenge of bringing the entire telecom fraternity together to deliver a G20 project of very high complexity and scale," said Manoj Tandon, Director Project, Operations and Maintenance.