Background

Since the closure of Mauritius Government Railways in the 1960s, Mauritius remained without a functional railway system for a long. Responding to increased car usage and chronic road congestion, the Government of Mauritius signed a contract with Larsen & Toubro (L&T), as a consortium lead, to develop a light rail transit system (LRTS), in July 2017.

HFCL, a key player of the said consortium, was entrusted with the telecom C&M contract for the entire project spanning 19 stations, 1 Operation Control Centre (OCC), and 1 Depot of the light rail transit system (LRTS).

The Challenge

• Non-availability of TER Room: The roads in Mauritius are not that wide, and being a popular tourist spot, making a TER room alongside the station was not feasible.
• Integration of Voice and Video within CCTV Recording System: This was a unique requirement to record voice and video simultaneously.
• Mobile App for Android and IOS: HFCL had to provide a Mobile app operating on Android/iOS, which generally needs internet connectivity for its operation. But the challenge was Metro Rail’s Network system LAN was unconnected to the internet to avoid hacking.
• Timely delivery of equipment: As the pressure was high to finish the project within the timelines, the primary task was to deliver the equipment from different parts of the world to Mauritius promptly for the successful execution of the project.

HFCL Solution

• To address the space availability issue, air-cooled Telecom Cabinets were specially designed and installed at stations to place all the telecom equipment. Telecom Cabinet has been installed on the station platform to provide accessibility of help phones, information kiosks, and route maps to the passengers.
• HFCL’s M3S+ software for CCTV solution and voice and video integrated solution was deployed, to meet security needs.
• HFCL also prepared the system network on local IPs (Private IP/without internet) and then connected the mobile app server (which runs on Public IP/Internet) through the firewall (creating a bridge between the two networks), which helped in running the application on the internet without disturbing the local LAN of the system.
• HFCL also pushed vendors for timely delivery and successful execution of the project’s first phase.

The Outcome

• The first phase of the project was inaugurated on 2nd October 2019 by the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Mr. Pravind Jugnauth, and the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi. It was tested & commissioned, and the trial run was done on 22nd December 2019 by the people of Mauritius.
• The work of HFCL was appreciated by the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Mr. Pravind Jugnauth, and the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi.